Who's more likely to shoot?
Who's more likely to deke?
Continuing with the process of breaking down each Montreal Canadiens player's performance in the offensive-zone. This post will focus on each player's tendency when in possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. I do this by calculating how many shots, passes, or dekes each player attempted per-minute of ice-time. I then divide the total attempts at each option (pass, deke, or shot) by the total amount of events. The higher the number, the more often that player chose that particular option.
It is important to differentiate between attempted offensive-zone events, and completed offensive-zone events. This post focuses on attempted, which includes both failed and successful attempts within each specific play (pass, deke, or shot.
In a previous post, I broke each of the successful plays into passes, dekes and shots. I also wrote about the the total amount of offensive-zone passes, and their impact on wins and losses here. Click here for a look at which forwards completed the most amount of total offensive-zone puck-possession plays per minute of ice-time.
*There were 13,706 individual events used to produce these results*
*These numbers were generated over all 82 Montral Canadiens games during the 2011-12 season*
*I have tracked every play by every Montreal Canadiens player since December, 2010*
ATTEMPTED OFFENSIVE-ZONE PUCK-POSSESSION EVENTS PER-MINUTE
FORWARDS
SCOTT GOMEZ's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 67% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Sixteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 17% of the time he would attempt a shot. Among current Habs, only Dumont and White were more likely than Gomez to choose the pass option.
TOMAS PLEKANEC's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 56 % of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Nineteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 26 % of the time he would attempt a shot. Plekanec's most successful option was to deke, as he was successful 64% of his attempts to beat opposing player 1on1 in the offensive-zone.
PETTERI NOKELAINEN's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 46% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Twenty-nine percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 25 % of the time he would attempt a shot. Surprisingly, Nokelainen was more likely than any other player to choose the deke option. Unfortunately, he was successful with only 41% of his attempts to beat opposing players 1on1.
BRIAN GIONTA's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 54% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Eleven percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 35 % of the time he would attempt a shot. Gionta was more likely than any other forward to choose the shoot option.
RENE BOURQUE's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 49% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Nineteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 32 % of the time he would attempt a shot. Only Pacioretty, Gionta and Geoffrion were more likely than Bourque to choose the shoot option.
TRAVIS MOEN's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 61% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Seventeen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 22 % of the time he would attempt a shot. Moen was the fourth-most likely forward to choose the pass-option.
GABRIEL DUMONT's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 73% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Eighteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 9 % of the time he would attempt a shot. Granted, he has fewer events than any other forward, but Dumont was far-and-away the most likely among forwards to choose the pass option. He was also the least-likely to choose the shoot option.
MICHAEL BLUNDEN's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 47% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Twenty-three percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 30% of the time he would attempt a shot.Blunden was among only 6 forwards who chose the shoot option more than 30% of the time.
DAVID DESHARNAIS's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 60% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Twenty-seven percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 13% of the time he would attempt a shot. Only Dumont chose the shoot option less often than Desharnais. As a side note, Desharnais was more likely than any other forward to complete his offensive-zone pass-attempts.
RYAN WHITE's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 67% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Fourteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 19% of the time he would attempt a shot. Only Dumont chose the pass-option more often than White.
BLAKE GEOFFRION's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 51% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Sixteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 33% of the time he would attempt a shot. Geoffrion equalled Pacioretty as the second-most likely forward to choose the shoot option. Unfortunately, only 33% of Geoffrion's shots made it through to the net.
AARON PALUSHAJ's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 55% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Twenty-one percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 24% of the time he would attempt a shot. Despite choosing the pass-option only 55% of the time, Palushaj still completed the second-most o-zone passes per-minute.
MAX PACIORETTY's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 53% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Thirteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 33% of the time he would attempt a shot.Only Gionta chose the shoot option more often than Pacioretty, and only Gionta chose the deke option less often than number 67. Pacioretty was also able to get a higher percentage of his attempted shots through to the net than any other Montreal player.
LOUIS LEBLANC's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 48% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Twenty-three percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 29% of the time he would attempt a shot. Only 3 forwards chose the pass option less often than Leblanc, and only four players chose the deke option more often than number 71.
ERIK COLE's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 44% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Twenty-eight percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 28% of the time he would attempt a shot. Cole chose the pass-option less often than any other player (including defensemen), and chose the to shoot as often as he chose to deke.
LARS ELLER's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 52% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Twenty-five percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 23% of the time he would attempt a shot. Eller chose to deke more often than he chose to pass. Among forwards, only Gomez had a better success-rate when attempting to beat opposing players 1on1 in the offensive-zone.
DEFENSEMEN
TOMAS KABERLE's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 70% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Seven percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 23% of the time he would attempt a shot. Not surprisingly, Kaberle chose the pass-option more often than any other defensemen.
JOSH GORGES' number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 62% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Two percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 36% of the time he would attempt a shot. Gorges attempted the lowest percentage of offensive-zone dekes.
RAPHAEL DIAZ's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 48% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Five percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 47% of the time he would attempt a shot. Diaz, along with Emelin chose the shoot option more often than any player not named Weber.
FREDERICK ST. DENIS' number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 65% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Three percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 32% of the time he would attempt a shot. Only Kaberle was more likely to chose the pass option than St. Denis.
YANNICK WEBER's number 1 tendency was to SHOOT, which he attempted 51% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Three percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 46% of the time he would attempt a PASS. Weber was the only player to chose the shoot option more than the pass, or deke option.
ALEXEI EMELIN's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 48% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Five percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 47% of the time he would attempt a shot. Emelin, along with Diaz chose the shoot option more often than any player not named Weber.
PK SUBBAN's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 49% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Eighteen percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 33% of the time he would attempt a shot. Subban was twice as likely as any other defenseman to choose the deke option in the offensive-zone.
ANDREI MARKOV's number 1 tendency was to PASS, which he attempted 65% of the time he had possession of the puck in the offensive-zone. Eight percent of the time he would attempt a deke, while 27% of the time he would attempt a shot. Only Kaberle chose to shoot less often than Markov.
