By the numbers: Game 40 vs. Winnipeg

Scoring Chances

San Jose

5v5 Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 100%

Winnipeg

5v5 Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 83.3%

Period-by-Period Summary

Although the numbers here are much closer than the shot totals were from last night, don't confuse that with Winnipeg as a whole doing well. Their second line, consisting of Mark Scheifele, Michael Frolik, and the criminally-underrated Mathieu Perrault did all the work for Winnipeg last night, as those three forwards were the only forwards for the Jets to finish with a positive scoring chance differential. Worth noting that the Jets' second D-pairing of Harrison-Postma (oh man, that's their second pair right now. That team's injuries are ridiculous, guys) played a lot of their minutes with the Jets' second line, and that caused their great scoring chance numbers, rather than their play being very good (as anybody who watched Jay Harrison on the Hurricanes the last few years could probably guess).

Although the Sharks' first line of Pavelski-Couture-Karlsson wasn't actually together for most of the game, the duo of Pavelski and Couture did very well with whoever was put on their wing (Sheppard looking good there on a few shifts), as much like the Jets' second line, it was Pavelski and Couture who carried the team with their scoring chance production. Although the chances in this game aren't super high, I think it's worth noting that any game the Sharks limit the opposition's scoring chances while Jumbo is out, it's basically the best you can ask for. Once Jumbo comes back, we can be certain that he'll bring some quality scoring chance production with him, so if the Sharks aren't doing excellently at producing scoring chances without Jumbo in the lineup, I'm not too worried about it just yet, as I figure that'll change once the amount of Jumbos in the lineup does.

Zone Entries

San Jose

Winnipeg

Obviously a much better effort through the neutral zone by the Sharks last night, compared to what they put together against the Blues on Saturday, and really, compared to what they've done the entire season, thus far. The Sharks generally tend to carry the puck into the offensive zone around 40% of the time, but they managed to do it on over 50% of their entires last night. On top of that, they produced quite a few shot attempts on their entries, especially their carry-ins. Quite a few Sharks also had really solid individual outings on zone entries, with Couture putting together another really solid game, and Wingels having an absolutely fantastic night.

Winnipeg didn't have quite as much success as the Sharks did on zone entries. As a team, they only carried the puck in on twenty of their fifty-four entries, just 37%. Despite this egregiously low number, the Jets did have a few players who put together solid outings. Scheifele and Perrault had solid games, while Wheeler used his speed and strength through the neutral zone to manage a 71% carry-in rate. Adam Lowry also had a good game, with fellow linemate TJ Galiardi having a pretty decent night, though maybe a bit below what we should expect from a speedy player like him.

Entry Targeting

San Jose

Winnipeg

Putting aside Irwin, and the one single entry Winnipeg attempted against him, this is the first game I can remember that every single Shark defenseman had a sub-50 carry-in against percentage. Hard to tell how long these D-pairings will stay intact, but if they do, I'll be interested to see if the Picklesnake pairing maintains these good numbers, as that pairing only allowed seven carry-ins against, on Winnipeg's nineteen entry attempts against them. I hesitate to compliment Tennyson on his work here, because last time I did that, thinking it was a sign of more good to come, he followed it up with some horrid efforts defending against zone entries. That being said, this one game was very good from him, as Winnipeg didn't manage a single carry-in against him, and he denied a fourth of their entry attempts against him.

Winnpeg's D as a whole did a pretty good job of defending against the Sharks' zone entry attempts, but due to the poor outings by Harrison and Byfuglien, their teamwide numbers are definitely inflated (also worth noting the overall drop from the Sharks 51% carry-ins to 42%, when odd-man rushes are excluded). Although the Sharks didn't attempt too many entries against some of Winnipeg's AHL call-ups, both Chiarot and Brouillete managed respectable numbers, which certainly bodes well for how the Jets will do once they start getting healthy, and those players are pushed into depth roles, which they will likely be more comfortable in.

Zone Exits

San Jose

Winnipeg

If there's one place where the Jets clearly outplayed the Sharks, it's zone exits. Although the Sharks' D had one of their best games in a while on zone exits (finally a game where every defenseman managed a successful zone exit!), the Sharks' forwards were jut not able to match the zone exit prowess of some of Winnipeg's top players. Nieto, Pavelski, and Desjardins had pretty impressive games, but the Jets were able to counter with fantastic outings by Frolik, Perrault, Galiardi, Little, Wheeler, and Ladd.

Notes:

-Pavelski and Couture did very well on scoring chances, though they were definitely outdone by the excellent work of Winnipeg's second line

-San Jose had one of their best performances of the season on zone entries, managing a 51% carry-in rate, with Couture and Wingels really leading the way

-Winnipeg didn't have nearly as much success, though Wheeler, Perrault, and Scheifele had good games

-Sharks' D did a very good job defending against zone entries, as all defensemen but Matt Irwin had sub-50 carry-in against percentages

-Winnipeg didn't defend against zone entries nearly as well as San Jose, especially with Jay Harrison's numbers inflating the team's numbers

-Every Shark defenseman managed a successful zone exit

-Winnipeg's D didn't put up eye-popping numbers on zone exits, but many of their forwards did, contributing to Winnipeg outdoing San Jose on zone exits