This post will focus on each Montreal Canadiens player's ability to make successful plays while in possession of the puck. Events used in this calculation include; passes, dekes, shots, and dump-ins. A successful touch can be described as any successful pass, deke, dump-in, or shot-on-net. Consequently, a failed attempt at any of these events would constitute an unsuccessful offensive-touch. Only even-strength events were used in this calculation.
Players with more FAILED offensive-touches turn the puck over more often than players with more successful o-touches. By extension, those players with more successful o-touches create more offense.
HOW TO READ THE GRAPH
- The higher a player's bubble is, the more FAILED offensive-touches they have contributed per-minute of ice time.
- The further to the right a player's bubble is, the more SUCCESSFUL offensive-touches they have contributed per-minute of ice-time.
- The bigger a player's bubble is, the higher that player's overall offensive-touch success-rate is in the offensive-zone.
A player whose bubble appears in the bottom-right of the graph has contributed more successful puck-possession plays, and FEWER turnovers than a player whose bubble appears in the top-left of the graph.
A player who's bubble appears in the upper-right of the graph engages in substantially-more puck-possession events. Expressed simply, he has the puck on his stick more often than players who's bubble appears in the bottom-left.
DEFENSEMEN
PK Subban contributes both more successful and more failed puck-possession plays than any other Montreal defensemen. Despite the high amount of failed offensive-touches, Subban still has the top puck-possession success-rate (along with Josh Gorges).
Douglas Murray contributes the fewest successful puck-possession plays per-minute, while also contributing the fourth-most failed offensive-touches. He also has the lowest puck-possession success-rate among Montreal d-men.
Gorges has produced the fewest FAILED puck-possession events, while also contributing the fourth-most success events. Gorges remains an under-valued puck-mover; particularly out of the defensive-zone.
FORWARDS
Lars Eller has produced the most successful puck-possession plays per-minute played. Max Pacioretty has produced the most FAILED offensive-touches, but has also produced the second-most successful puck-possession plays.
Michael Bournival has the third-most successful offensive-touches, and the fourth-best puck-possession success-rate. Ryan White has produced the fewest FAILED offensive-touches per-minute. This also means that White has produced the fewest even-strength turnovers per-minute.
The puck-possession passenger-list appears at the left-side of the graph. Daniel Briere has produced the fewest successful puck-possession plays per-minute, while Travis Moen and Rene Bourque have produced the second and third-fewest offensive-touches, respectively. In Moen's defense, he has produced substantially more successful defensive-touches per-minute than both Briere and Bourque.
