There is a lot of useful hockey data that we can look up on various websites (Corsica, Puckalytics, Natural Stat Trick, Hockeystats.ca, Own the Puck, etc). Many of these sites use data scrapers to document the NHL’s play by play events. This is how Corsi/Fenwick is compiled. This is all very valuable and useful in an effort to evaluate hockey players properly. However, there are limits to that kind of information and I believe there aren’t too many new concepts that will be derived from it at this point.
The next wave of information (pre-chip tracking technology) is going to come from the people who manually track micro-stats. These are people like Ryan Stimson and his legion of helpers who are currently tracking passing throughout the league and it also includes Corey Sznajder. This is labor intensive and the information derived is very valuable as we try to get better at analyzing players. Corey has embarked on tracking some of these micro stats this year and he has completed the first ten games of the 2016-17 Penguins season. I am going to share what he found here today.
Here is a link to his work so far.
Penguins team page is up and running.Still need the last two games but wanted to get this out there. https://t.co/SKJQRArOYv #Pens
— Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) November 7, 2016
Here are some of the offensive contributions that Corey has documented so far
Was going to make a graph showing the Pens offensive contributions but then this happened... pic.twitter.com/R1rkhEyvcN
— Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) November 7, 2016
This is a good way to look at who is generating offense by passing and/or shooting. It should really come as no surprise that Crosby and Malkin are unreal at this. They totally throw off the scaling of every chart they are in because of how good they are. One thing that stood out to me was that Malkin could probably stand to shoot more even though he is setting up other players at an insanely good rate. Sid is otherworldly right now.
Other things on here don’t really come as a surprise but tracking this kind of information gives us an objective database to pull from. Patric Hornqvist does a better job at creating shots than passes. Nick Bonino’s skills as a passer are evident, but he could stand to create more shots for himself. Eric Fehr is more of a chip and chase guy so his shot assists aren’t very high. Tom Sestito being on the lower left shouldn’t surprise anybody.
Here is a look at how the opponents have been attacking the Penguins defense on zone entries
Pens Zone Entry Defense: Who's being targeted the most and who is allowing more carry-ins? Teams seem to be picking on Warsofsky. pic.twitter.com/tN6Jhd0VM3
— Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) November 7, 2016
It makes sense that other teams would target an AHL call up like Warsofsky to see if he can handle himself. Teams are learning to stay away from Brian Dumoulin as he is able to thwart carry-ins more successfully than his teammates. Trevor Daley is also doing a nice job here despite teams trying him more often than Dumoulin. Olli Maatta has the worst percentage out of Penguins defenders the first ten games of the year.
Controlled entries are the best way to generate offense in hockey. It is impossible to prevent all controlled entries. Which Penguins defensemen do a better job at others at defending after a controlled entry happens?
Another thing we can look at is how often each defenseman is allowing a passing play on carry-ins. Who's the best at preventing them? pic.twitter.com/rj6oFYmBV0
— Corey Sznajder (@ShutdownLine) November 7, 2016
Having proper gap control is one of the best assets a defenseman can have and tracking events like this can help illustrate which players have it and which players don’t. Kris Letang’s skating skills are incredible and it isn’t shocking to see that he is able to shut things down better than other players. Brian Dumoulin once again shows well in his defensive ability. Olli Maatta may allow the highest percentage of entries, but he is above average at defending the pass once those entries happen. Trevor Daley is good at preventing the initial entry but not so great at preventing passes once the entry is gained.
This sample is only ten games, but we can start to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the players. As the sample size grows throughout the year we can feel more confident about the data. Having people like Corey track these micro-stats is incredibly valuable and gets us closer to having a way to evaluate things like “hockey IQ… objectively. Documenting the number of controlled plays a player can create or prevent is a great starting point in achieving this. We don’t really have any traditional statistics that measure defensive ability. The hockey community has done a better job with dismissing things like plus/minus, but there are still people who think there is value in it. These newer stats can help us move past misleading statistics so we can be more accurate in player analysis.
I look forward to see how these stats look as the year progresses.
Thanks for reading!