Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 November 2014 09:35
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
Most teams keep statistics. Many of these stats give us information we can use. It is common for teams to record and know face-offs won, hits, shots on goal, and of course, the ultimate stat – the score. Some of these stats have been kept for ages, some are newer. The information provided in these stats can tell us lots of things. I, for example, often look at a forward’s stat sheet at the end of a night and look at the S column, which stands for “shots” on goal. I look not only at the individual, but also his/her entire line.
As a forward, you want to be generating chances, and that often is reflected in shots on goal for the line. Lines can have good nights in generating chances and still not show up on the main scoresheet in terms of goals and assists. As a coach, I always wanted to know which lines were generating shots and scoring chances … and for our opponents, too!
I like looking at time on ice (TOI). This is a great stat to see how valuable a player was to his team on a given night. It is also a great stat for teams as they manage a player’s workload throughout the long season.
The following however is a list of stats that ought to be developed that I think would be useful.
1. Passes attempted and completed. We keep this stat in football, but not in hockey. Can you imagine a more important stat outside of the score itself? When your team is going good, I can pretty much assure you that the team is creating continuity with crisp and accurate passing. On the opposite side of this would be forced and unforced turnovers. This stat might take a full dedicated person to record, but it would be a telling stat.
2. Related to this would be time of possession. Again, we keep this stat in football, and I think there are some teams that are beginning to keep this stat in hockey, but not to a wide degree yet to my knowledge. This stat is obviously related to passes completed. All this said, not all teams are alike. Some teams are puck possession teams and will want to see dominant numbers in puck possession. Other teams are more defensive and are a bit more inclined to give up the puck, pursue their opponents, force mistakes and counterattack. That is no different than a football team punting, pinning their opponent deep and then forcing bad play with a great defense … which also can be a winning strategy. In either scenario, time of possession still gives us valuable information.
3. I really like this next one for the higher levels of hockey – speed. I would love to see a radar gun at each blue line of an NHL game. At the end of the night, we would see which team crossed their opponent’s blue line with more speed. I have said for years that the team that enters the zone with the most speed, and hopefully puck possession as well, has a great advantage. Higher level strategy includes sophisticated team play in the neutral zone. The team with the puck is trying to create speed in the neutral zone while the defensive team is trying its best to slow their opponents speed. I think it goes without saying that the team that generates the most speed for zone entry has an advantage.
Then we should add a compliementary stat here – speed with puck possession. What percentage of time you can force your opponent to dump the puck versus entering the zone with puck possession. This would be an interesting and telling stat, one I believe our TV networks could start sharing with viewers immediately. I don’t think it would be hard to do at all … a couple of radar guns could do the trick! Of course I don’t have to pay the help or the bills!
4. A stat I always kept when I analyzed my game video was “legitimate scoring chances.” I do see this stat shared on a televised game on occasion. What is a legitimate scoring chance? To me, those chances include shots with screens and traffic, rebounds created with rebounders in position, shots off odd-man rushes, etc. A shot crossing the blue line with no traffic or real chance of scoring does not count.
In my analysis over the years, in the average game a team could generate “teens” of real chances. I would also categorize these chances by 1) zone entry, 2) power play/penalty kill, 3) defensive zone/offensive zone play, 4) turnovers, etc. Getting into the 20’s for total legitimate scoring chances was very good for a total game. Team efficiency in keeping an opponent to single digits scoring chances was very good. It was always depressing for me when losing games where we gave up single digit scoring chances ... sometimes even low single digits.
Think of all the stats we keep – hits, face-offs won, shots and so on – and they are all important. Stats provide information to coaches and fans on pieces of the game that they are winning or are creating advantages/disadvantages. But at the end of the day and while statistics provide useful information that can and should be dissected, the only statistic that really matters is the big one on the scoresheet – the final score.
Kevin Hartzell was most recently the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen. A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. His columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s. His new book “Leading From the Ice” is now available at amazon.com.
