The evolution of the Vancouver Canucks systems play has been one of the more interesting developments of the last three-plus seasons. In that span, the Canucks have had as many coaches, each with their own unique approach to the game. 

A case can be made for these changes being most profound in the way each coach approaches the neutral zone. Intuitively, it’s hard to reconcile the importance of the area of play furthest removed from where the goals happen. In reality, controlling the neutral zone goes a long-distance towards securing victory.

It’s why I’ve placed a high amount of emphasis on the neutral zone in how I conduct my analysis at the team and individual level. In doing so, I’m tracking every Canucks game this season and as many from other teams as my schedule will accommodate. About a month back, I looked at the Canucks through the neutral zone for the month of October.

Today, I’ll bring you the Canucks neutral zone data through the month of November.

Now that the sample has increased considerably from my last data set, we’re starting to see percentages normalize in both directions. Henrik Sedin is slowly regressing from having 78% of his entries occur with control of the puck, down to a human level of 65%. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we see players like Alex Burrows and Jake Virtanen making strides towards a breakeven ratio of entries with and without control.

One of the more interesting storylines of the season has been that of Sven Baertschi. The Suisse winger has often commented on an increased emphasis on his play away from the puck and defence came at the expense of his offence at the beginning of the season. As Baertschi is becoming increasingly confident as a two-way player, we see him moving away from the peripheries of play and into the thick of it. Consequently, his neutral zone impact appears to be decreasing as the season wears on.

Then again, if you can break even on neutral zone impact and chip in significant offence, it’s a trade you take eleven days out of ten.

Matt Bartkowski has one skill. Granted, it’s a totally useful skill that this lineup could use more of, but you’d rather a more rounded game all the same. Anyways, Bartkowski has the third highest percentage of controlled entries on the entire team. This stat is about as offensively slanted as they come, so that’s pretty damn impressive. Especially given the sample is large enough that it can’t be written off entirely.

Didn’t expect Chris Tanev to do much of the heavy lifting in the neutral zone on his pair. Based on these numbers, though, it appears as though the steady defender is doing much of the legwork to get the puck into the oppositions end.

As a not-so-self-proclaimed “stats guy” I absolutely love when the data aligns so closely with things that I’m observing. Even better when they match up with the consensus opinion. For example, just look at Bo Horvat. This is a player who’s made his game on bull rushes starting in the neutral zone. Not overly surprising then that Horvat is miles ahead of the pack at generating shots on a per entry basis.

Radim Vrbata’s results are encouraging as well, and again, not overly surprising. This is a player who is renowned for his shot volume – sniper monicker be damned. As a player who’s always shooting, it makes sense that Vrbata would generate a high volume of shots per entry.

Not so surprisingly, we see Bartkowski near the top of the pack for every metric accounted for. What really caught me off guard was when I looked back at his October data and realized that the Canucks were averaging more than double the amount of shots per Bartkowski zone entry since then. That’s a massive jump. Can only imagine how gaudy the number would be if I isolated the data for November.

Luca Sbisa 

Tomorrow I’ll be posting the results at the team level. Suffice to say, though, the Canucks are a relatively strong team through the neutral zone. Some of their younger players are playing a key role in driving this success, which speaks to an organizational fludity that values scheme fit when finding players to fit within Willie Desjardins system.