Who's successful defensively?
Who's involved offensively?
Who's involved defensively?
The overriding goal for any team is puck-possession. Maintaining possession is the only way to avoid giving up goals, and obviously the only way to score goals. When a team is without possession, they are usually attempting to regain possession. Conversely, when they have possession they are usually attempting to maintain possession; all with the hope of getting a shot on net.
The first graph is a visual representation of how many defensive, and how many puck-possession events each Montreal Canadiens player engages in per-minute of even-strength ice-time.
A possession-event is defined as any event where a player is already in possession of the puck (pass, deke, shot, etc.) A defensive-event is defined as any events where a player is not in possession of the puck, and is attempting to either remove or acquire possession from the other team (blocked pass, puck-battle, etc.)
Only players with more than 150 even-strength minutes played are included.
Among Montreal defensemen, PK Subban engaged in the most events in the offensive-zone with possession. Andrei Markov engaged in the second-most offensive-zone events with possession, while Francis Bouillon was a surprising third. Bouillon's numbers become less-surprising when we realize he has the second-highest offensive-zone start percentage among Habs defensemen.
In terms of defensive-events, Markov engaged in the most events without possession. This tells us that Markov was more likely to pinch-in at the offensive blueline with the goal of removing or acquiring possession from the opposition. Subban produced the second-most defensive-events in the offensive-zone, while Montreal's other defensmen were far less-likely to engage the opposition in the offensive-zone.
Among forwards, Max Pacioretty was the most active forechecker; forechecking is defined as engaging the opposition in the offensive-zone with the goal of acquiring or removing puck-possession. The Habs second most-likely forechecker was Alex Galchenyuk, while Lars Eller and Brendan Gallagher were third and fourth, respectively.
The Habs least-active forecheckers were Travis Moen, and Tomas Plekanec. Moen had the second-lowest offensive-zone start percentage among Montreal wingers, while only Jeff Halpern had a lower o-zone start percentage among centres than Plekanec.
In terms of puck-possession among forwards, Pacioretty had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone more often per-minute of ice-time than any other forward. Eller had possession the second-most, while Gallagher was a close third. Halpern and Moen had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone less-often than any of the other Montreal forwards.
The next graph displays each player's success-rate when in possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. A successful puck-possession event would be any successful pass, deke, or shot on net.
Among defensemen, the three players with the most puck-possession events per-minute of ice-time (Subban, Markov, Bouillon ) also have the highest offensive-zone puck-possession success-rates. Josh Gorges is among the least-active d-men in the offensive-zone, and has the lowest o-zone puck-possession success-rate.
In terms of forwards, David Desharnais had the highest offensive-zone puck-possession success-rate (for the second-straight season), but only engaged in the seventh-most offensive-zone puck-possession events per-minute played. Halpern also has a high puck-possession success-rate, but as mentioned earlier in not very active in the offensive-zone.
Ryan White produced the lowest offensive-zone puck-possession success-rate. Other players with low o-zone puck-possession success-rates include Brian Gionta and Rene Bourque.
When attempting to acquire or remove puck-possession in the offensive-zone, Bouillon was among the most active defensemen, and the most successful. Gorges also had a high success-rate, but as displayed above, was not very active in the offensive-zone.
Pacioretty was the most active, and the most successful Montreal Forechecker. Followed closely by White. Other successful foreckers include; Brandon Prust, Plekanec, Colby Armstrong, Galchenyuk, and Eller. Bourque, Halpern and Moen were the least-successful Montreal forecheckers.
With puck-possession as the main goal, it is important not only to determine which players are the most successful when attempting to maintain possession of the puck, it is also imperative to establish which players are the most successful when attempting to remove or acquire puck-possession.
