Players who spend a substantial amount of their time on the ice defending in the defensive-zone, are far less likely to produce plays that push possession up ice and eventually lead to scoring-chances. As mentioned in a previous post on offensive-zone possession-percentage; during my experience tracking games, almost without exception the team that engaged in the higher amount of their overall events with possession of the puck in the offensive-zone produced more scoring-chances. Consequently, the team that spent more time defending in the defensive-zone gave up more scoring-chances.
This post will communicate how much "time" (by way of percentage) each Montreal Canadiens player spent defending in the defensive-zone relative to a replacement player. The graph breaks down the percentage of total events (offensive and defensive) in all 3 zones each player engaged in while defending in the defensive-zone. Those with a higher percentage spent more "time" time stuck in the defensive-zone.
The calculation is performed by dividing the number of events each player engaged in while defending in the defensive-zone by the total number of events (all 3 zones) each player engaged-in.
Expressed more simply; if a player engaged in 4 events while defending in the defensive-zone, and engaged in a total of 10 events in all 3 zones, than his defensive-zone defending percentage would be (4/10 =0.40) or 40%.
In other words, 40% of his overall events were spent attempting to remove puck-possession from the opposition in the defensive-zone.
In order to determine a players performance above replacement we simply subtract the average percentage produced by all the players who play that position from each individual player's total. A higher percentage is not a good thing within this metric, as it reflects a player who spends more "time" defending in the d-zone.
Defensive-zone defensive plays used in this calculation include all defensive-zone blocked shots, blocked passes, stick-checks, and body-checks. Only even-strength events and ice-time were used in this calculation
A list of all events tracked can be found here.
OVERALL ES DEFENSIVE-ZONE DEFENDING PERCENTAGE ABOVE REPLACEMENT
Not surprisingly, the Habs top offensive-players spent less "time" defending than an average player at the same position.
Among wingers, Michael Bournival, Travis Moen, and Brandon Prust engaged in the highest percentage of their even-strength events while defending in the defensive-zone relative to a replacement player. Tomas Plekanec's low percentage is surprising, considering the high level of competition he faced on a nightly basis, while PK Subban's performance within this metric is simply jaw-dropping. This is the power of a PK Subban; he simply does not have to spend time defending, as he has the puck more often than any other player on the ice; what an impressive attribute to have in a defenseman.
As with offensive-zone possession-percentage, this metric is a great tool when attempting to quantify the difference between offensive and defensive-players.
