By the numbers: Game 74 vs. Detroit

Scoring Chances

San Jose

Even Strength Scoring Chance Shooting Percentage: 57.1%

Percent of Even Strength Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 23.3%

Detroit

Even Strength Scoring Chance Shooting Percentage: 8.3%

Percent of Even Strength Fenwick Events that were Scoring Chances: 30.8%

Period-by-Period Summary

-The Sharks' two leading scoring chance point generators in this game were Marleau and Couture, showing that those two did good work in the offensive zone, but their work in the defensive zone left something to be desired, as they were on the ice for 6 even strength scoring chances against

-The Hannan and Burns pairing hasn't worked very well ever and I don't know why it keeps being put back together. That pairing needs to be killed with fire and never revisited. I get not wanting to play Mueller with Hannan cause wow, what a way to stunt a guy's development, but the Hannan-Burns pairing really is just terrible and not conducive to winning hockey games (which the Sharks are still trying to do).

-The Sharks were outchanced 12-7 at evens in this game, and I think Detroit's numbers here really show how that went down. Only two players finished with non-positive differentials, and those two players (Jurco and Kronwall) finished even. No Detroit line absolutely dominated the Sharks, it was more just that every line of theirs outmatched their SJ counterparts. Crazy how offensive depth can help you out like that.

-I used to be a fan of Weiss' back when he was, well, good, but those days have passed, and now I'm frankly kinda embarrassed that the Sharks allowed him to have 2 scoring chances in this game. The dude is not a highly effective hockey player anymore, and the fact that he was still able to create chances against the Sharks shows you how ineffective they were in this game.

Passing Stats

San Jose

Detroit

-Hertl played about 3 minutes less than Jumbo at evens last night, but he was really close to surpassing Thornton in pass attempts in this game, something I'm not sure we've seen yet while I've been tracking these stats. When Hertl spent time on Thornton's wing, he was basically just a triggerman and nothing else, but it's good to see his playmaking develop a bit in his time away from the top line.

-I mentioned in last game's BTN post that if Tierney's linemates got on the same page with him, that they'd probs start producing goals, and voila, in this game, even though he didn't pass the puck too much, he generated a scoring chance goal off the stick of Matt Nieto. That line is really young, but I think it's definitely got some potential (and a fair amount of speed), and I'll be interested to see how it does for the rest of the season (assuming it stays together).

-So I'm a huge Tomas Tatar fanboy, and his numbers in this game show part of why that is. Tatar played 37 more even strength seconds than Thornton in this game, and managed to make 6 more plays than Jumbo. That isn't a slight on Thornton, it just speaks to how skilled Tatar is. His passes weren't too successful in this game, as 5 of his 14 pass attempts resulted in turnovers, but man was he fun to watch.

-Nyquist was also pretty fun to watch, as his fancy skating was on full display last night, and he made 14 plays during 5 on 5 play.

Zone Entries

San Jose

Detroit

-Detroit managed almost as many carry-ins in this game as San Jose did entries. No biggie.

-Seriously though, that's really bad. Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan alone attempted almost half as many entries as San Jose did. Generally I'd say this was due to score effects and all, but in this game I think it was more just a product of San Jose being outdone in the neutral zone by a superior team.

-On the bright side, Nieto was really good in the neutral zone, and Marleau was pretty good as well. And... um... well... that's it for San Jose actually.

-For Detroit though, Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist did well, as did Riley Sheahan, who navigated the neutral zone as artfully as a purple teletubby driving down the wrong side of the road (except like, in a good way).

Entry Targeting

San Jose

Detroit

-Burns bounced back to normal form in this game after a couple really effective games, allowing 9 carry-ins against on Detroit's 13 entry attempts against him

-In fact, any defenseman wearing white not named "Scott Hannan" or "Brenden Dillon" in this game did quite bad at preventing Detroit carry-ins, as only Dillon and Hannan allowed carry-ins on under 50% of the entries attempted against them.

-I think the only defensemen you can really talk about on the Detroit side of things are Smith and Zidlicky, as they're the only Detroit defensemen who faced more than 4 entry attempts

-Smith did quite average, allowing 3 carry-ins on 6 entry attempts against, while Zidlicky was very hit or miss, allowing 4 carry-ins, but also denying 2 entry attempts, as San Jose attempted 7 total entries against him.

Zone Exits

San Jose

Detroit

-Braun put up some pretty good numbers exiting the zone, as did Dillon, who utilized his skating legs on a couple of breakouts, which is pretty rare to see a Shark defenseman doing.

-The wingers on the third line put up good zone exit numbers, but Tierney really struggled, turning the puck over 7 times on his 13 touches.

-Before discussing individual players for Detroit, I just want to say that as a team, they put up beautiful numbers. From the data I've collected so far this season, league average for overall success% is around 25%, and league average for Turnover% is around 30%. In this game, Detroit was 3% above league average on their overall success%, and 4% below league average on turnover%. That's some good stuff.

-Smith and Zidlicky put up good exit numbers for Detroit, though I think the most surprising performances came from the Ericsson-Kronwall pairing, as Ericsson managed 5 successful breakouts on his 14 touches, and Kronwall--the more notable puck mover of the two--managed zero successful breakouts. He only turned it over 2 times on his 15 touches, so it's not like he played terribly, but I really expected Kronwall to have more zone exit prowess than Ericsson (though maybe it's just an itty bitty sample size thing).