Last week one of the best follows on Twitter, analytics wizard @JFreshHockey, dropped a bunch of “micro-stats” from stat-tracking company InStat.
InStat goes back over games and grades events like turnovers, zone entries, puck battles, and dekes. The Golden Knights were littered throughout the top and bottom 20 lists for a variety of stats, some that were quite surprising.
We’ll start with a good one.
Which forwards exited the defensive zone with possession of the puck most often? pic.twitter.com/KEBaOZLcSL
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
No surprise here, Mark Stone is awesome. The eye test has proven this out for years, but now we have a solid stat to show that when the puck is on Stone’s stick in the defensive zone, it’s coming out of the zone. Also unsurprisingly, he does it by passing the puck out as opposed to carrying it.
Which forwards entered the offensive zone with the puck the most in the 2020-21 season? pic.twitter.com/mrDLyZNNgw
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Mark Stone is also awesome entering the zone? Yep, figured that one too.
Which defencemen entered the offensive zone with the puck the most in the 2020-21 season? pic.twitter.com/fdRkqbvmF5
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
This one is not in the least bit shocking knowing the names, but it does refute the theory about Pietrangelo’s lackluster regular season. Beating out Theodore in zone entries is no small feat. I’d love to see what this number looked like for Pietrangelo in the playoffs where he was absolutely dynamite for two months.
This one is a little convoluted, but bear with me.
This one shows the blueliners with the most defensive zone turnovers per 60 minutes of defensive zone time. pic.twitter.com/bkM8YTaDFu
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 9, 2021
This one is a bit concerning for the future of the Golden Knights blue line. The projected third pair both find themselves way up the list despite facing the weakest competition in the weakest division. They’ll have to improve with a full schedule on the docket in 2021-22.
Which forwards passed the puck the most often in the 2020-21 season? pic.twitter.com/YRwxo6aeOX
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Which defencemen passed the puck the most in the 2020-21 season? pic.twitter.com/fpvI1MFz7W
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
With all the possession the Golden Knights usually have in a game, I’d have expected there to be more than just the top forward line on the board here. The names on the defensive side are a who’s who of superstar blue liners and VGK are noticeably absent. Plus, where are the Misfits?
Which forwards won puck battles at the highest rate?
Using @InStatHockey's tracked stats, here are the guys you want in your corner digging for pucks. pic.twitter.com/MkNisgrRVy
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Which defencemen win the most puck battles?
Using @InStatHockey's tracked stats, here are the defencemen who came up with the puck at the highest rate in the 2020-21 season. pic.twitter.com/6RiCQ6tK7f
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Which forwards lose the most puck battles? pic.twitter.com/F4uFOjJSor
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Which defencemen lost the most puck battles? pic.twitter.com/62mH31tEtY
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Nothing but great news across the board here. For those who think William Karlsson is overpaid or needs to score more, this is one of the many places he excels that doesn’t show up on the scoresheet.
Which forwards turned the puck over the most?
Using @InStatHockey's tracking data, here are the forwards who put the puck in their opponent's hands the most: pic.twitter.com/gRXYeL8VzE
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Sharing this one more for the name at the top of the list as opposed to #13.
Which forwards steal the puck most often?
Using @InStatHockey's tracked data, here are the best thiefs of the 2020-21 season: pic.twitter.com/R8iDQAwNde
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
Which defencemen steal the puck the most?
Using @InStatHockey's tracked data, here are the league's top pick-pockets on the blueline in the 2020-21 season.
(The answer may surprise you) pic.twitter.com/Xrf5fLnvqg
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) September 8, 2021
T-Mobile Arena is notoriously loose with their takeaway numbers so it’s good to see some players in the rankings when judged by different eyes. Karlsson and Tuch over Stone though… **eyes emoji**.
Overall, for the most part it’s good news for the Golden Knights. Karlsson appears in many lesser tracked places while the only real negatives pop up in expected places (third pair and offensive weapon turnovers).
**Be sure to give @JFreshHockey a follow on Twitter and head over to his site. If you like in-depth analytics, no one in hockey does it better.**
THE hockey GOD
which goalie resembled billy buckner the most in post season ?
que up theme from Hockey Night in Canada
Daryl
Which goalie could beat a winning team only ONCE the entire season???
Daryl
I’ve asked before and you never seem to answer… I wonder why that is???
How many Billy Buckner moments did the 1st or 2nd pairing have during the playoffs? How many wideopen nets did they miss? How many TO that lead to scores did our best players have? I’m willing to bet you won’t answer or you will come up with an excuse!!!
THE hockey GOD
not even close to billy buckner, once in lifetime, moments
apples and oranges
Daryl
LOL… .and as I stated, you CAN’T even give an answer, just more BS. You belong with Doc!!! Two old guys who think they know so much just b/c they are old when in fact they don’t know shit!
THE hockey GOD
i did give an answer
you clearly don’t know the meaning
of apples and oranges
not even close to billy buckner, once in lifetime, moments
apples and oranges.
Doc who ? Doctor who ?
paging doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard
report to the ER.
Daryl
It’s called deflection. You didn’t answer my question, you deflected it by saying apples and oranges. You blame the loss of the series on MAF because of his one mistake. It was a mistake that tied the game. VGK came back and won the very next game. So to say they couldn’t overcome his mistake is total BS. Petra turned the puck over which cost VGK the lead. VGK ended up losing that game. So exactly whats the difference between the two? Let me guess, apples to oranges? Thought so.
Also, how is missing a wide open net different than any other mistake. I know, it’s the liberal way of looking at things… it doesn’t fit your narrative so it doesn’t count. I get it
Blitz
I watched MTL playoff game 5 again last night on NHL Network. It is really amazing how bad VGK was against MTL. Sure there were moments of ok, but MTL was flies on shit all over VGK that whole series. VGK was bad pass after bad pass. The flow just wasn’t there at all. Maybe that is just playoff hockey, but it wasn’t no where near that bad against MIN/AVS.
THE hockey GOD
did you see the bad ice ?
Blitz
Don’t make me put the bat signal out for Paulie. I typo’d, I actually meant game 6, so no ice issues.
Daryl
While these stats are interesting and gives us something to talk about, most of them are really meaningless… like bringing the puck into the offensive zone. Does it really matter if you bring the puck into the zone if all you do is shoot it around the boards to the other team? Or brining the puck into the offensive zone only to shoot at the net and miss everything entirely and you end up losing possession of the puck?
Like anything else, stats are situational. If you have 3 GA and 2 TA, it doesn’t matter much unless one of your TO leads directly to a goal like Petra’s did. And this happened quite a bit on breakaways, not necessarily from Petra, just in general.
Daryl
I thought I would help THg out…. here are a couple links to other goalies who have made huge mistakes, some on the playoffs. I tried to find the one where the walrus fell down in the playoffs 2 years ago and couldn’t get up but I haven’t found it yet. But when I do, I’ll be happy to show this little old man that shit happens. Doesn’t matter though, he isn’t smart enough to know these things…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSkj4LK0yB8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DifhNxCk1c4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbbHihp55p0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77up3Zvjeww
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PoIWzd__uA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4omy513XAs
Don’t worry, I only spent maybe 5min looking up these videos. I was just going to post a couple but I actually enjoyed watching all of them so I decided to post them as well. Some good laughs here
THE hockey GOD
still not billy buckner moments, apples and oranges.
Fluery cost them the series, every NHL fan back east knows it.
Daryl
Please explain…. The goal MAF gave up tied the game, it did not put them behind in the game. If it cost them and they couldn’t recover, explain how they were able to come back and win the next game?
Oh I get it… Well I’m blaming the entire playoffs on Leh er because he gave up 6 goals to COL and as a team VGK just never got over that
THE hockey GOD
not billy buckner moments, none of these were “face of franchise” choking in prime time , making 7 million a year and cost team serious momentum in series eventually leading team to never over come it because they lost confidence in the “face”. Apples and oranges , not close to epic failure provided by Marc- Andre “Billy Buckner”. The seven million dollar let down of all time.
Everyone back east knows it, every NHL fan knows it.
Daryl
For the record, I’m back East. I guess you missed Mary’s big scre up which cost NJD? Or Price’s screw-up. For someone who claims to have watched hockey forever and k ow so much, your posts say the exact opposite
VGK2018
What did Mark Stone’s “micro stats” look like in the Playoffs? Asking for a friend…
THE hockey GOD
very micro, less than micro. What’s below micro ? mini ? No I got it, I got it. Here is it is !
10-6 micro µ
10-9 nano n
10-12 pico p
10-15 femto f
VGK2018
Yeah, so all of these regular season stats are quite meaningless for a team that will make the playoffs easily in the worst division in all of sports.
And for two years running (Dallas and Montreal) he has been a no show when it counted the most. I honestly don’t care what he does for the next 82 games. Analyze all you want Ken but the VGK has no shot of winning anything if you have $10m of cap space doing nada when it counts the most.
THE hockey GOD
he’s gaining valuable how to lose experiences so he knows what to do one day when he finally wins a semi finals. Remember it took the CAPS years of losing to find out how to win. Sometimes you never get there.
VGK2018
Haha. Yep, we are a short decade away from being the Sharks!