Canucks scoring chance totals: Playoffs

Cam Charron
April 24 2012 03:57PM

What follows here is a table that's quite data-heavy.

As you probably know, we count scoring chances at Canucks Army. After every game, we post a recap with a table of players on both teams, the number of scoring chances they were on the ice that were for their team, and the number of scoring chances that went against their team.

So for the playoffs, we've tallied it up. For what we define as a scoring chance, click here.

Here are the totals at even strength.

# Name EV TOI Chances For/60 Chances Against/60 Diff Rate
25 Ebbett 7 8.6 0.0 8.6 100.0%
29 Rome 10.2 23.5 0.0 23.5 100.0%
40 Lapierre 50.3 16.7 10.7 6.0 60.9%
23 Edler 83.8 19.3 13.6 5.7 58.7%
1 Team (Luongo) 80.6 21.6 15.6 6.0 58.0%
9 Kassian 19.1 18.8 15.7 3.1 54.5%
17 Kesler 72 17.5 15.0 2.5 53.8%
14 Burrows 67.8 19.5 16.8 2.7 53.7%
7 Booth 68.1 19.4 19.4 0.0 50.0%
33 H. Sedin 80.3 20.9 21.7 -0.7 49.1%
3 Bieksa 89.9 21.4 22.7 -1.3 48.5%
8 Tanev 68.9 13.9 16.6 -2.6 45.7%
36 Hansen 64 15 17.8 -2.8 45.7%
20 Higgins 56 11.8 15.0 -3.2 44.0%
2 Hamhuis 83 18.8 24.6 -5.8 43.3%
21 Raymond 54.2 15.5 21.1 -5.5 42.4%
6 Salo 66.1 10.9 16.3 -5.4 40.0%
22 D. Sedin 31.5 19 28.6 -9.5 40.0%
35 Team (Schneier) 142.9 13.4 20.6 -7.1 39.5%
4 Ballard 53.8 10 15.6 -5.6 39.1%
26 Pahlsson 59.3 10.1 17.2 -7.1 37.0%
27 Malhotra 31.8 13.2 26.4 -13.2 33.3%
32 Weise 8.3 0 50.6 -50.6 0.0%
34 Bitz 2.9 0 0 0 0.0%

Note how high Alex Edler ranks here. Edler may have been Vancouver's best two-way defenceman. 27 scoring chances for, and 19 against over the course of the series. The problem is that Edler made costly turnovers, likely due to the fact that he has to handle the puck a lot more often. The play was usually at the other team's end, however.

Not surprisingly, Manny Malhotra and Samuel Pahlsson, who handled the tough minutes, rank low. The team fared better in front of Luongo than Schneider because they were behind more when Luongo was in the game. This means that the team spent more time pressing.

Also, Aaron Rome should have got more minutes.

Here are the powerplay performers. I'm only counting players who had at least two minutes:

#  Name PP TOI Chances For/2
22 D. Sedin 8.6 2.34
2 Hamhuis 17.9 1.46
17 Kesler 22.3 1.26
35 Team (Schneider) 16.9 1.18
33 H. Sedin 25.2 1.11
23 Edler 21.6 0.93
21 Raymond 4.9 0.82
3 Bieksa 14.9 0.67
1 Team (Luongo) 16.4 0.49
14 Burrows 13.9 0.43
20 Higgins 12.2 0.33
6 Salo 14.0 0.29
7 Booth 12.5 0.16
25 Ebbett 3.3 0.00
36 Hansen 2.2 0.00

Not surprinsgly, the powerplay did much better with Daniel Sedin in the lineup. Given the crappy powerplay Games 1-through-3, what could have been, eh?

Shorthanded:

#  Name SH TOI Chances Against/2
29 Rome 2.2 0.00
6 Salo 14.4 0.42
20 Higgins 9.6 0.42
23 Edler 16.5 0.73
26 Pahlsson 9.7 0.82
1 Team (Luongo) 18.9 0.85
17 Kesler 15.9 0.88
4 Ballard 4.5 0.90
14 Burrows 12.9 0.93
27 Malhotra 16.2 0.99
8 Tanev 5.9 1.02
35 Team (Schneider) 22.9 1.05
36 Hansen 15.9 1.13
21 Raymond 3.3 1.22
2 Hamhuis 20.5 1.27
3 Bieksa 18.6 1.29

Very good penalty-killing by Sami Salo. Again, the top pairing gets killed defensively, but they saw the top unit more often.

And team totals.

The rates are what matter most:

STEV - Score tied at even strength.
EV - Even strength
Overall - Overall totals, including even strength and special teams.

  STF STA STEV EVF EVA EV OVF OVA Overall
Game 1 13 12 52.0% 17 12 58.6% 21 18 53.8%
Game 2 3 3 50.0% 13 9 59.1% 15 13 53.6%
Game 3 4 10 28.6% 8 11 42.1% 9 13 40.9%
Game 4 1 6 14.3% 8 12 40.0% 14 21 40.0%
Game 5 6 15 28.6% 16 26 38.1% 21 30 41.2%
                   
Totals 27 46 37.0% 62 70 47.0% 80 95 45.7%

The Canucks got absolutely killed in Games 3, 4 and 5 after hanging on in 1 and 2. The numbers in the Cory Schneider half of the series look gross (probably because Aaron Rome didn't play either game).

Special teams:

The first two columns are powerplay chances for and shorthanded chances against. This measures up the Canucks powerplay head to head with the Kings' powerplay. The second column does the reverse:

  PPF SHA PP Rate SHF PPA SH Rate
Game 1 3 6 33.3% 1 0 100.0%
Game 2 2 2 50.0% 0 2 0.0%
Game 3 0 2 0.0% 0 0 -
Game 4 5 6 45.5% 0 1 0.0%
Game 5 5 4 55.6% 0 0 -
             
Totals 15 20 42.9% 1 3 25.0%

The Canucks were out-classed on special teams' in this series. L.A lit them up for 20 chances to 15 on the PP, and also got an extra two while shorthanded. I believe one was a goal and one other one led to a goal. Another was a penalty shot if I'm not mistaken.

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Cam Charron is BC-raised hockey fan and journalist and acts as the managing editor of The Leafs Nation. In his spare time, you can find him blogging about numbers at Canucks Army, discussing the juniors at Yahoo's Buzzing the Net, ranting in some way or another at the Score's Backhand Shelf, or acting as an MSM wannabe in the pages of the Vancouver Province.
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Reply #1 NoCup April 24 2012, 05:49PM
+1 0 props

Thanks for putting the numbers together! Great stuff. But I'm officially now more depressed after seeing them. What a gong show of a series this team put forth. Games 3-5 were utterly horrible and embarrassing for a team who went to gm 7 of SCF less than a yr ago.

I want a major shakeup this summer, and I'm talking core players (not named Sedin). Clearly there an an emotional issue with this team, it can only be rectified with sever changes to core players who are clearly not leading this team in the right direction.

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Reply #2 VBS6935 April 24 2012, 10:32PM
+1 0 props

Thanks for posting these numbers all season long, and in the playoffs. They are really interesting and helpful, and I hope you are able to do it again next season.

My question is why did the Canucks get so badly out chanced in the last 24 minutes of their last game, when their whole season was on the line. I think it was mental fatigue. Was there some other reason do you think?

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Reply #3 dan April 25 2012, 04:29PM
+1 0 props

good post..did you adjust pp play chances for pp/time?

I have chance% equal when this is done LA 45 min. PP Van 34 both ~.44 PER MIN.

Of course L.A> shorthanded smoked Van..2 goals! one penalty shot!

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