Faceoffs and Zone Starts

[L K]

ES
Bozak          73/149
Kadri            44/98 
Bolland        53/122 
McLement      20/39 

SH
Bozak          15/46
Kadri            0/1
Bolland        4/9
McLement    4/11

PP
Bozak          20/34
Kadri            17/25
Bolland        1/6
McLement    1/3

Offensive Zone Faceoffs
Bozak          15/43
Kadri            13/25
Bolland        14/29
McLement      8/18

Defensive Zone Faceoffs
Bozak          26/50
Kadri            19/42
Bolland        13/37
McLement      14/33

Offensive Zone Start
Bozak          46.2%
Kadri            37.3%
Bolland        43.9%
McLement      35.3%

Offensive Zone Finish
Bozak          47.8%  (+1.6%)
Kadri            45.6%  (+8.3%)
Bolland        55.1%  (+11.2%)
McLement      41.3%  (+6.0%)

- Kadri and McLement spend the most time starting in the defensive zone on the team
- Kadri and Bolland do the best job of ending their shift with the puck in the opposite zone
- Kadri does the best job at winning offensive zone faceoffs
- Bozak and McLement have been the best at taking defensive faceoffs

Completely irrelevant conclusions:
- Kadri should get more offensive zone opportunities because he actually takes advantage of that ice-time
- Bozak should spend more time in the defensive zone where he has more success

 

[moon111]

You're missing Kessel.  NHL has him listed as a center.  He's loss all five of the faceoffs he's taken.

 

[proteus2000]

Interesting analysis. What stands out to me is the oddity that Kadri starts so much more in the defensive zone where he is far less effective as it is, while his numbers represent he is decent in the O-zone and is actually very solid on the PP.

If Kadri is able to win more or as many draws in the O-zone as Bozak, why not give him more minutes on the PP and let him play with Kessel/Lupul or Kessel/JVR in the O-zone. In terms of creating chances he is far superior to Bozak.

Bozak's numbers in the O-Zone...yikes. Not good. I hope that he cleans it up, as draws is obviously a big strength of his. If his numbers dipped this badly in the D-zone and on the PP, I don't know why he would ever be on the ice in crucial moments.

I'm puzzled how Bozak could be 15/46 SH yet 26/50 in the D-zone, while he is 20/34 on the PP yet 15/43 otherwise in the O-zone.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

I was pretty surprised to see that we don't have a single centre with an offensive zone start % over 50%. I checked the rest of the team and JVR is the only forward over 50% on the team. I assumed that was unusual so I looked at the first 10 alphabetical teams and found that they all have an average of 5.8 players who started over 50% of their shifts in the offensive zone. The numbers ranged from 3 to 8. I don't have the raw numbers to look at, but this would seem to suggest that we're taking more defensive/neutral zone faceoffs than most teams. This, coupled with the fact that we're one of the worst faceoff teams in the league, would partially explain why our possession numbers are so bad.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

I was pretty surprised to see that we don't have a single centre with an offensive zone start % over 50%. I checked the rest of the team and JVR is the only forward over 50% on the team. I assumed that was unusual so I looked at the first 10 alphabetical teams and found that they all have an average of 5.8 players who started over 50% of their shifts in the offensive zone. The numbers ranged from 3 to 8. I don't have the raw numbers to look at, but this would seem to suggest that we're taking more defensive/neutral zone faceoffs than most teams. This, coupled with the fact that we're one of the worst faceoff teams in the league, would partially explain why our possession numbers are so bad.

All those defensive zone faceoffs due to Bernier and his lack of rebounds and poorly timed covering of the puck, amirite?

 

[Kin]

I was pretty surprised to see that we don't have a single centre with an offensive zone start % over 50%. I checked the rest of the team and JVR is the only forward over 50% on the team. I assumed that was unusual so I looked at the first 10 alphabetical teams and found that they all have an average of 5.8 players who started over 50% of their shifts in the offensive zone. The numbers ranged from 3 to 8. I don't have the raw numbers to look at, but this would seem to suggest that we're taking more defensive/neutral zone faceoffs than most teams. This, coupled with the fact that we're one of the worst faceoff teams in the league, would partially explain why our possession numbers are so bad.

Isn't it a little chicken and the egg-y though? I mean doesn't being a bad possession team explain the low number of offensive zone starts just as much as vice versa?

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Isn't it a little chicken and the egg-y though? I mean doesn't being a bad possession team explain the low number of offensive zone starts just as much as vice versa?

It could be. Either explanation definitely makes sense. 

Just for the sake of curiosity I just checked the other teams in the bottom-10 in corsi and they were all around the 5.8 average I mentioned before too. None of them had less than 4 players on their team over 50%. The Islanders actually only have 3 below 50% and Washington has just one player below 50%. So it does look like Toronto is in a very unique position here.

And just to clarify, these numbers are counting both forwards and defencemen. In that case Rielly joins JVR as the only Leaf over 50%.