By the numbers: Game 64 vs. Montreal

Scoring Chances

San Jose

Even Strength Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 100.0%

Percentage of Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 32.6%

Montreal

Even Strength Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 100.0%

Percentage of Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 30.0%

Period-by-Period Summary

-Awesome game for the Sharks' new-look third line, especially for Ben Smith, who finished his night with a +6 scoring chance differential, and three scoring chance points

-Although Thornton's line was able to generate solid zone time, and really did well on the cycle, they weren't able to generate many scoring chances, as every member of that line had a negative scoring chance differential.

-Not many Habs come out of these numbers looking good, but a few of the players who do are Lars Eller, Jeff Petry, and Tom Gilbert. Lars Eller has been pretty underrated during his time in Montreal, and both Petry and Gilbert were very underrated during their times in Edmonton, so it's cool to see those players find success in this game.

-On the other side of things for Montreal, Malhotra, Prust, Gonchar, and Beaulieu didn't have very good nights, as none of those players were on the ice for a single even strength scoring chance for Montreal. This is understandable for Malhotra and Prust, who started eight and seven shifts in the defensive zone respectively, while getting zero offensive zone starts, but Beaulieu and Gonchar saw the majority of their shifts start in the offensive zone, so the same excuse doesn't carry over to them.

Passing Stats

San Jose

Montreal

-Last night gave us some passing results that seem very "right" for Jumbo, as he finished his night with a 78.26 pass%, only attempting two shots.

-Logan Couture also had his fair share of pass attempts (seven), but he also turned it over on over half of those attempts (four, to be exact), so not a great game for Logan in the O-zone.

-For the first time in the three games I've been tracking these stats, SJ's opposition did not finish their night with a higher shot% than SJ, as MTL only managed a 29.94% compared to SJ's 37.85%.

-I was expecting a tad more from Subban in this game, as his offensive creativity didn't really seem to be on full display and 40% of his plays in the offensive zone were just dumps/rim plays.

-To further show what a bad night they had, Beaulieu and Gonchar combined for only five plays in the offensive zone. While starting most of their shifts in the offensive zone. That's pretty bad.

Zone Entries

San Jose

Montreal

-San Jose had a pretty strong zone entries effort in this game, being led by Burns, who carried the puck in on all three of his entries

-Pavs also had a pretty strong game, as he managed two carry-ins on four successful entry attempts, and the team managed to average one shot attempt per every one of his entries.

-Smith also had a good game on zone entries, carrying the puck in on 60% of his successful entries, and the team attempted a decent amount of shots off of his entries.

-Alex Galchenyuk matched Burns' effort on zone entries, but many of the Habs' other players' saw their decent carry-in% numbers accompanied by low shot attempt/entry numbers, making their all-around numbers seem lacking.

-An excellent example of this is Max Pacioretty, who attempted nine entries, carried the puck in on five of those entries, but saw his team only get 0.33 shot attempts per every one of his entries.

Entry Targeting

San Jose

Montreal

-This was a pretty average game for San Jose's defense, as the below-average performances of Braun and Burns were balanced out by the performances of Dillon and Vlasic, while Mueller and Irwin posted relatively average numbers.

-Irwin and Mueller did, however, manage to deny quite a few Montreal zone entry attempts, as those two combined to deny five of Montreal's neutral zone escapades.

-Markov and Gonchar didn't do very well at all when it came to defending their blue line, though their efforts were balanced out somewhat by Nathan Beaulieu

-Desharnais had an odd game for a forward, being targeted for entries four times, and allowing carry-ins on all four of those SJ entry attempts.

Zone Exits

San Jose

Montreal

-As per the usual for Mueller, he mostly stuck to in-zone passes when it came to having to exit the zone, but Dillon made up for it by having one of his best games on zone exits that I can remember, managing six pass-outs on sixteen touches

-Dillon was basically the only Shark D-man to do well on exits in this game though, as the other five Sharks defensemen in this game combined for twenty-four turnovers.

-I know I'm gushing excessively about Smith's performance in this game, but he was also really good on zone exits, successfully breaking the puck out four times on his seven touches

-Gallagher, known more for his work in the offensive zone, had a fantastic game on zone exits, turning the puck over zero times, and managing successful breakouts five times on his six touches

-Desharnais was also good on zone exits, managing four breakouts on five touches, only turning the puck over once

-Again, I come away from these numbers wanting more from Subban though, as he only managed one successful breakout in this game, while turning the puck over six times.