By the numbers: Game 62 vs. Detroit

Before jumping into the numbers, I figured I'd mention that there's something new in this By the Numbers post. Much like last season, we're starting something new here for the stretch drive, as I'll also be tracking (to the best of my ability) the Sharks' (and their opponent's) passing in the offensive zone during 5v5 play for the rest of the season. Fair warning, this was my maiden voyage with tracking this, so it's entirely possible my numbers are off a bit, but I think they're mostly correct. My main goal with tracking these numbers is to see what players are doing what in the offensive zone, in an attempt to figure out who on the team really is a "shoot first" or "pass first" type of player. In doing so, we will also see who is the most successful with their passing, and whose passing generates the most significant offensive opportunities for each team. If you have any questions about my work with our new "Passing Stats," feel free to ask them in the comments, as I'll be glad to answer any questions about these new numbers.

Now that that's been said, let's start with something we're all familiar with: scoring chances.

Scoring Chances

San Jose

Even Strength Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 85.7%

Percent of Even Strength Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 22.7%

Detroit

Even Strength Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 100.0%

Percent of Even Strength Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 34.1%

Period-by-Period Summary

-Though SJ's powerplay helps the overall numbers in this game look prettier than they should (scoring chances 17-11 overall in favor of Detroit), the even strength numbers really show the story in this game, as SJ got outchanced by almost a 3-1 margin at evens, getting outchanced 14-5.

-A big reason for SJ's woeful scoring chance production is the fact that they did not generate a single scoring chance in the last half of the game. Half. They went the last thirty minutes of the game without getting a scoring chance.

-Though Detroit's line of Pulkkinen-Andersson-Weiss played less at evens than their line of Miller-Glendenning-Jurco, the Andersson line was clearly better in this game, as they didn't allow a single scoring chance against, while the Glendenning line somehow finished the game with a negative scoring chance differential.

-The real show of this game was Datsyuk's line, as they absolutely crushed Couture's line, with Detroit managing eight scoring chances while Datsyuk's line was on the ice at evens.

-Pretty great that in a phase where the franchise is "playing and integrating the young guys" that Tierney and Goodrow got less than five minutes of ice time at evens.

-Jumbo and Shep's lines did decent in this game, as they didn't generate many scoring chances, but they also didn't hemorrhage chances against in their own zone, so I guess it kinda balances out.

-Tomas Tatar has somewhat-quietly become one of Detroit's better players, and his skill was on full display last night as he had a hand in five Detroit scoring chances at even strength.

-Given that Nyquist and Andersson finished a combined 6 for/1 against on scoring chance in this game, I figured I might as well mention how every non-Detroit team should be sorry for not double offer-sheeting those two when they had the chance.

-Detroit was a lot more effective generating high quality shot attempts in this game, as a third of their Fenwick events were scoring chances, compared to only 22.7% for San Jose.

Passing Stats

The categories I included in tracking the Sharks' passing include the following: pass attempts, dumps/rim attempts, shot attempts, pass turnovers, rim turnovers, passes leading to scoring chances, passes leading to goals, pass%, shot%, pass success%, rim success%, passes leading to scoring chances % (PLSC%), and passes leading to goals % (PLG%). That's a lot of info to throw at you guys, so here are some handy-dandy definitions you guys can consult.

Pass Attempts--The total number of plays a player made where the clear intent was to pass to a specific teammate.

Dumps/Rim Attempts--The total numbers of plays a player made where the intent was simply to get the puck deep into the zone, possibly to get the puck to a teammate down low, but without any clear target.

Shot Attempts--Any shot attempted by a player, including shots on goal, missed shots, and blocked shots. These numbers will come courtesy of the fantastic war-on-ice.com.

Pass Turnovers--The number of turnovers a player had while attempting to complete a pass to a teammate.

Rim Turnovers--The number of turnovers a player had while attempting a dump or rim play.

Passes Leading to Scoring Chances--The numbers of passes a player made wherein the direct result of the pass was a scoring chance (i.e. the scoring chance occurred up to about three seconds after the pass completion).

Passes Leading to Goals--The number of passes a player made wherein the direct result of the pass was a goal (i.e. the goal occurred up to about three seconds after the pass completion).

Pass %--The percentage of a player's plays that were passes (calculated using the formula "[pass attempts]/[pass attempts+rim attempts+shot attempts]"). This, over time, should give us an idea of which players really are "pass first" players.

Rim %--The percentage of a player's plays that were dumps/rim plays (calculated using the formula "[rim attempts]/[pass attempts+rim attempts+shot attempts]"). This, over time, should give us an idea of who most frequently simply relies on rim plays to get rid of the puck (if I had to guess, I'd say it will probably end up being defenseman and non offensively-creative players who end up with large percentages here).

Shot %--The percentage of a player's plays that were shot attempts (calculated using the formula "[shot attempts]/[pass attempts+rim attempts+shot attempts]"). Much like pass %, this should, in a large enough sample size, give us an idea of who is a "shoot first" player.

Pass Success %--The percentage of passes a player completed (calculated using the formula "1-[pass turnovers/pass attempts]").

Rim Success %--The percentage of a player's dump/rim plays that ended up on a teammate's stick (calculated using the formula "1-[rim turnovers/rim attempts]").

PLSC%--The percentage of a player's passes that were Passes Leading to Scoring Chances.

PLG%--The percentage of a player's passes that were Passes Leading to Goals.

With all those definitions out of the way, let's get to the actual numbers for this game.

San Jose

Detroit

-Pretty clear indicator of who had the puck the most in this game, as Detroit made 123 plays in the offensive zone, while San Jose only made 89 plays.

-Pretty sad that the Sharks only had one pass that led directly to a scoring chance, as a Joe Thornton pass to Melker Karlsson in the first was the only pass that led directly to an SJ scoring chance during 5v5 play last night.

-Detroit managed seven of these, with Tatar, Datsyuk, and Nyquist each managing two of them.

-Thornton predictably led the way in a lot of these statistics for the Sharks, most notably having nine successful passes.

-Not to be outdone though, Datsyuk had ten successful passes, while also attempting two more shots than Thornton.

-Detroit was much more trigger happy than San Jose in this game, with shot attempts accounting for 43.9% of their offensive zone plays, compared to 33.71% for San Jose.

Zone Entries

San Jose

Detroit

-63-38 were the entry attempts in this game in favor of Detroit which is pretty great, in my opinion.

-Wingels had a decent night on entries, while Couture had a relatively average one.

-No one else really did even an average job on entries. Aside from Couture and Wingels, only two other Sharks managed more than two successful entries: Tyler Kennedy and Scott Hannan. The team generated zero shot attempts off of Kennedy's entries, and the team only generated one shot attempt off of Hannan's entries.

-If you're a Red Wings fan though, you got to see some pretty good performances. Adbelkader, Datsyuk, Andersson, Tatar, Jurco, Glendenning, Jurco, and Pulkinnen all had carry-in percentages that were 50% or above, while many of those same guys put up pretty solid shot attempts/entry numbers as well.

-One more great note to end on. Despite Detroit attempting 25 more entries at evens in this game, San Jose somehow ended up with more failed entries than Detroit.

Entry Targeting

San Jose

Detroit

-Braun, Hannan, Burns, and Dillon did pretty well at defending against Detroit's entry attempts, especially Braun, who only allowed three carry-ins against on eleven entry attempts against.

-On the other hand, Vlasic didn't have a very good night at all, as Detroit's first line found a way to get Vlasic to cede the blue line much easier than he usually does.

-Obviously San Jose didn't attempt many entries in the final half of this game, so Detroit's numbers here should be taken with a few grains of salt.

-That being said, it was a pretty good game for Detroit's defense, as only rookie defenseman Alexey Merchenko finished his night with a carry-in against percentage above 50%.

Zone Exits

San Jose

Detroit

-Here's a helpful tip: if you ever need to cry on the spot, just take a look at the zone exit numbers for Detroit compared to San Jose in this game. Instant tears, I'm tellin' you.

-Seriously though, San Jose only managed a successful breakout on about 14% of their touches, while Detroit managed them on almost 25% of their touches. When excluding in-zones passes, Detroit managed to exit the zone successfully on almost half of their touches, while SJ did so on only about 25%. San Jose turned the puck over on almost 40% of their touches, while Detroit did so on only about 25%. San Jose got astoundingly outplayed in this game, and the zone exit numbers go to show part of why that is.

-Six Sharks ended their nights having turned the puck over on 50% or more of their touches. Burns and Nieto highlight that list, with 9 and 6 turnovers, respectively.

-Detroit's zone exit success didn't come because of their D-men, as only DeKeyser managed more than one successful breakout.

-Their success came at the hands of guys like Datsyuk and Helm, as Datsyuk managed three successful breakouts and turned the puck over zero times.