As I track players' events, I break down their passes into sub-categories. Defensive-zone passes are broken down into: D2D passes, outlet passes, and stretch-passes.
D2D PASSES: these are passes made east-west in the defensive-zone; either across the front of the net, or bounced off of the boards behind the defensive-net. They are usually made when teams are regrouping or when their is a need to reverse-the-flow.
OUTLET PASSES: Regular passes made either up the boards or through the middle of the ice (within the defensive-zone) to a winger or centremen during transition.
STRETCH PASSES: Outlet passes that travel from the defensive-zone (below the hash-marks) to the neutral-zone, or from the defensive-zone (above the hash-marks) to a receiving player on the other side of centre-ice.
DEFENSEMAN-TO-DEFENSEMAN PASSES
Josh Gorges has attempted the most d-to-d passes. He has actually completed more d-to-d passes than any other Montreal defenseman has attempted. Douglas Murray has attempted the fewest d-to-d passes, while also completing the fewest. Andrei Markov has the best success-rate when attempting a d-to-d pass, while Alexei Emelin has the lowest success-rate.
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ATTEMPTED D-ZONE D2D PASSES /MP0.2530.4060.3110.3170.2930.3570.2570.326
SUCCESSFUL D-ZONE D2D PASSES /MP0.2080.3600.2600.2910.2410.3070.2380.286
D-ZONE D2D PASSING SUCCESS-RATE82.4%88.5%83.6%91.7%82.2%85.9%92.9%87.6%
STRETCH PASSES
Raphael Diaz has attempted the most stretch passes per-minute played, and has actually completed more stretch passes than Murray, Gorges, Bouillon, and Emelin have even attempted. Murray has attempted the fewest stretch passes per-minute, and has the lowest success-rate when attempting stretch passes. Markov has the top success-rate.
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ATTEMPTED D-ZONE STRETCH PASSES /MP0.0820.1110.1100.2030.0910.1500.1550.140
SUCCESSFUL D-ZONE STRETCH PASSES /MP0.0450.0760.0700.1370.0590.1010.1130.096
D-ZONE STRETCH PASS SUCCESS-RATE54.5%68.4%63.4%67.4%64.3%67.4%72.9%68.1%
TOTAL DEFENSIVE-ZONE PASSES
These numbers include d-to-d passes, stretch-passes, and regular outlet passes.
Diaz has attempted the most passes from the defensive-zone, and has the fourth-best success-rate. Murray has attempted the fewest d-zone passes, and has the lowest defensive-zone passing success-rate; more than 10 percentage-points below average. Gorges has the top overall d-zone passing success-rate; followed very closely by Markov and Subban.
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TOTAL ATTEMPTED D-ZONE PASSES /MP0.7721.0420.9631.1361.0111.0390.9591.015
TOTAL SUCCESSFUL D-ZONE PASSES /MP0.4980.8130.6710.8480.7170.8090.7460.759
TOTAL D-ZONE PASSING SUCCESS-RATE64.4%78.0%69.6%74.6%71.0%77.9%77.8%74.8%
TENDENCIES
The higher the percentage, the more often that defenseman has chosen that option while passing the puck from the defensive-zone.
