This post will focus on visually representing each Montreal Canadiens defenseman's offensive and defensive play during the 2013 NHL season. This will be done by calculating each d-man's success-rate when attempting plays while in possession of the puck, as well as their success-rate when attempting to remove puck-possession from the opposition.
My player tracking system tracks each puck-possession event over the course of a hockey game. This provides me with the necessary data to perform these calculations.
An offensive touch is described as any play made while a player is in possession of the puck. Events used in this calculation include; passes, dekes, pass-receptions, dump-ins, dump-outs, and shots on net. A player's successful offensive-touch percentage is calculated by dividing the number of successful offensive-touches by the total amount of offensive-touches.
Example:
successful o-touch % = (successful o-touches)/(successful o-touches+unsuccessful o-touches)
A defensive touch is described as any play made while not in possession of the puck whereby the main goal is to remove possession from the other team. Events used in this calculation include; stick checks, body checks, blocked passes, and blocked shots. Successful defensive-touch percentage is calculated by dividing the number of successful defensive-touches by the total amount of defensive-touches.
Example:
successful d-touch % = (successful d-touches)/(successful d-touches+unsuccessful d-touches)
The bubble-graphs included here show each player's offensive and defensive-touch percentage, as well as the total number of events they engaged in.
Expressed simply;
- The higher the bubble is the more successful the player was when in possession of the puck (offensive-touches).
- The further to the right the bubble is, the more successful that player was at removing puck-possession from the opposition (defensive-touches).
- The bigger the bubble is, the more events they engaged in per-minute of ice-time
OVERALL EVEN-STRENGTH OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE TOUCH PERCENTAGES
Events used in this graph include offensive and defensive-touches that took place in the offensive-zone, the neutral-zone, and the defensive-zone.
As we can see by the size of the bubble, PK. Subban engaged in more events per-minute played than any other Habs defensemen. The height of his bubble tells us that he had the highest offensive-touch success-rate, while how far to the right his bubble is shows us that he had the second-best success-rate among Montreal d-men when attempting to remove puck-possession from the opposition.
Andrei Markov had the lowest offensive-touch percentage among Habs d-men. Markov's low o-touch percentage was the product of a player who attempts higher-risk plays; particularly stretch passes from the defensive, and neutral-zones. That said, high-risk sometimes yields high-reward.
Josh Gorges bubble shows us just how far ahead of other Montreal defensemen Gorges was defensively. His defensive-touch percentage was carried by his work in the defensive-zone, as shown in a later graph.
Raphael Diaz had the lowest defensive-touch success-rate. Diaz's low rate was the product of his play in the offensive-zone.
OFFENSIVE-ZONE EVEN-STRENGTH OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE TOUCH PERCENTAGES
Events included in this graph are all offensive and defensive-touches that took place in the offensive-zone.
As we can see, Diaz's defensive-touch success-rate in the offensive-zone was the reason for his low total at even-strength. The specific event hurting his rating was blocked opposition dump-outs. Diaz had a success-rate of only 41% when attempting to hold the puck in at the offensive blueline. The size of Diaz's bubble also shows us that only Gorges engaged in fewer offensive-zone events than number 61.
Alexei Emelin had the highest defensive-touch success-rate in the offensive-zone. Contrary to Diaz, Emelin's high rating was the product of his ability to keep the puck in at the offensive blueline.
Subban had the highest offensive-touch success-rate in the offensive-zone, and engaged in the most offensive-zone events among Habs d-men. The lowest offensive-touch success-rate was produced by Gorges, who was successful with only 53% of his offensive-zone pass-attempts.
DEFENSIVE-ZONE EVEN-STRENGTH OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE TOUCH PERCENTAGES
Events included in this graph are all offensive and defensive-touches that took place in the defensive-zone.
This graph does a great job of expressing Gorges incredible play in the defensive-zone. Number 26 had an impressive defensive-touch success-rate in the d-zone; a full 5-percentage points above any other Montreal defenseman. Complimenting his d-touch percentage, Gorges also produced the second-highest offensive-touch success-rate in the defensive-zone.
Subban once again produced the best offensive-touch percentage, while Markov had both the lowest defensive and offensive-touch success-rate among Montreal defensemen. Markov produced one of the highest defensive-zone success-rate when attempting to block opposition passes, but had both the lowest shot-blocking success-rate and defensive-zone passing success-rate.
