This post will focus on Montreal Canadiens defensemen. It will visualize each d-man's overall defensive-zone passing success-rate, and break down their defensive-zone passes into three sub-categories.
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.
DEFENSIVE-ZONE PASSING SUCCESS-RATES
DEFENSIVE-ZONE PASSING TENDENCIES
DOUGLAS MURRAY (SSS)
Murray has chosen the stretch-pass option less often than any other Montreal d-man, but only Tinordi has produced a lower d-zone passing success-rate than Murray.
JARRED TINORDI
Tinordi has produced the lowest defensive-zone passing success-rate, yet has chosen the regular outlet-pass option more often than any other Montreal d-man.
JOSH GORGES
Gorges has the second-best defensive-zone passing success-rate among Habs defensemen, and only Murray and Beaulieu have gone d2d more often than Gorges.
NATHAN BEAULIEU
Only Murray has chosen the d2d pass option more than Beaulieu, and Beaulieu has chosen the regular outlet-pass option less-often than any other Montreal d-man.
FRANCIS BOUILLON
Bouillon's defensive-zone passing success-rate has fallen just below 70%. Only Douglas Murray (SSS) has chosen the stretch-pass option less than Bouillon.
RAPHAEL DIAZ
Diaz is among the Habs top-4 defensemen in defensive-zone passing success-rate, and only Bouillon and Murray have chosen the stretch pass option less-often than Diaz.
PK SUBBAN
Subban has produced the second-highest defensive-zone passing success-rate, and only Markov has chosen the stretch-pass option more than PK.
ANDREI MARKOV
Despite attempting the fewest high-perentage d2d passes, and the most low-percentage stretch-passes, Andrei Markov has still produced the highest defensive-zone passing success-rate.
