By the numbers: Game 70 vs. Winnipeg

Scoring Chances

San Jose

Even Strength Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 70.0%

Percent of Even Strength Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 46.5%

Winnipeg

Even Strength Scoring Chance Save Percentage: 90.0%

Percent of Even Strength Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 35.7%

Period-by-Period Summary

-These numbers should be taken with about this much salt, but the Sharks did manage a lot of scoring chances in this game. Generally teams that have the lead tend to give up lots of shots, but I'm not sure I've seen score effects have this big of an impact on scoring chances in a while.

-Thornton's line was by far the best last night (again, lots and lots of salt), but Couture's line was pretty bad. Nieto, Couture, and Marleau all finished their nights with negative scoring chance differentials in a game where their team as a whole managed a +10 differential. Pretty bad stuff.

-This game was actually a pretty good snapshot of Thornton, Karlsson, and Pavelski's seasons, as Thornton managed a lot of scoring chance assists, Karlsson had a lot of scoring chances, and Pavelski managed a good amount of both.

-Mark Scheifele is having a pretty good season this year (thanks in large part to playing a lot with Mathieu Perrault), and that shows in these numbers, as he was one of only two Winnipeg Jets who had positive scoring chance differentials last night.

-The other Jet was Drew Stafford, who's putting up some pretty good numbers in Winnipeg after his reputation as a player had inexplicably taken a dive the last couple of years.

Passing Stats

San Jose

Winnipeg

-Jumbo had another good game here, turning the puck over zero times on his twelve pass attempts.

-Tierney's night was very similar to the Chicago game, as it seemed he was making a lot of good, smart passes, but his teammates weren't always ready for the passes, and that played a pretty big part in his three pass turnovers

-This confirms a trend I've been seeing in this data so far: three Shark players had shot percentages above 70%, and all three of them were defensemen. Hard to tell just yet if this is a league-wide trend, but the Sharks' D-men have been attempting a lot of shots in the games I've tracked this data for.

-Michael Frolik was the Jets' most active player in the offensive zone last night, making thirteen plays in the offensive zone.

Zone Entries

San Jose

Winnipeg

-Good nights for Thornton and Pavelski in the neutral zone, as they put up the best zone entry numbers on the team

-Michael Frolik was pretty effective in the neutral zone last night, but overall, nobody on the Jets really put up jaw-dropping numbers.

-One of the concerning parts about these numbers is just how close the number of entries is for Winnipeg and San Jose. In a game where Winnipeg supposedly dropped into the defensive shell, they sure were doing a lot of work in the neutral zone.

Entry Targeting

San Jose

Winnipeg

-This was one of Burns' rare really good games defending the blue line, as not only did he only allow three carry-ins, but he also denied three of Winnipeg's entry attempts.

-In fact, the D as a whole did a pretty good job, except for Braun and Irwin, who combined to allow about half of the carry-ins that the team, as a whole, allowed

-Trouba had a pretty good game by these numbers, as did Tobias Enstrom, whose work here shows part of why guys like Mike Babcock regard him as an elite defenseman.

-Stuart and Pardy seem like pretty similar players, but their numbers here are very noticeably not similar, as they basically put up polar opposite numbers.

Zone Exits

San Jose

Winnipeg

-This was a solid game for the Sharks on zone exits, as they managed successful breakouts on about a fourth of their puck touches.

-Karlsson had a very Karlsson-y game here, as he did manage a few good zone exits, but he also turned the puck over a few times as well

-Marleau had a fantastic game exiting the zone, managing five breakouts and zero turnovers on his six touches

-Couture didn't put up the ugliest numbers ever, but his numbers are not good by any means. One instance in particular comes to mind where he had the puck, had no pressure on him, and he just tossed the puck over to the boards for no reason, turning it over in the process. Not his best game ever.

-Again, Enstrom is very good, as he managed a breakout on about a third of his touches in this game.

-Frolik also did pretty well, successfully carrying the puck out of the zone four times, and passing it out one more time, en route to putting up some pretty good all around zone exit numbers.