Hi, reading up on analytics, I thought for sure I would see zone breakouts numbers, but I can't seem to find anything on the subject. When analyzing stats for defensemen, the good old stats did not provide much aside from +/-, which is basically useless. Blocked shots and hits are fine and all, but don't tell much of the story.
I feel like the big stat that's missing is breakouts. When eveluating defensemen, what they do once they get the puck in the defensive zone is a big deal. Can he make a clean breakout pass? Can he skate the puck out of the zone? Is he committing turnovers? Isn't he shooting that thing off the glass every single time?
I was thinking of dividing the stats into street lights i.e. Red, Yellow, Green.
Red = a breakout attempt that leads to a turnover (giving up the puck inside the zone after gaining possession)
Yellow = zone cleared but breakout aborted (defenseman sent the puck out but his teammates couldnt do anything with it, other team regains possession outside of the zone) include icings here.
Green - successful breakouts (the defenseman made a nice pass to a forward that started a breakout OR the defenseman skated the puck out of his zone himself)
The stats would read something like this for a single game:
BREAKOUT ATTEMPT STATS -- RED -- YELLOW -- GREEN
Shayne Gostisbehere -- 3 -- 2 -- 4
etc
Now it may be complicated to actually track this, but it isnt rocket science either. If the NHL can have someone sitting out there counting every single shots taken and by whom, I'm sure they can have someone who judges every single breakout attempt as well.
It seems to me like how a dman breaks out of his zone is one of the most important thing in hockey, so it seems weird that there are no stats for this. While Corsi, etc is great and all, it's not the best way to evaluate a blueliner.
I feel like the big stat that's missing is breakouts. When eveluating defensemen, what they do once they get the puck in the defensive zone is a big deal. Can he make a clean breakout pass? Can he skate the puck out of the zone? Is he committing turnovers? Isn't he shooting that thing off the glass every single time?
I was thinking of dividing the stats into street lights i.e. Red, Yellow, Green.
Red = a breakout attempt that leads to a turnover (giving up the puck inside the zone after gaining possession)
Yellow = zone cleared but breakout aborted (defenseman sent the puck out but his teammates couldnt do anything with it, other team regains possession outside of the zone) include icings here.
Green - successful breakouts (the defenseman made a nice pass to a forward that started a breakout OR the defenseman skated the puck out of his zone himself)
The stats would read something like this for a single game:
BREAKOUT ATTEMPT STATS -- RED -- YELLOW -- GREEN
Shayne Gostisbehere -- 3 -- 2 -- 4
etc
Now it may be complicated to actually track this, but it isnt rocket science either. If the NHL can have someone sitting out there counting every single shots taken and by whom, I'm sure they can have someone who judges every single breakout attempt as well.
It seems to me like how a dman breaks out of his zone is one of the most important thing in hockey, so it seems weird that there are no stats for this. While Corsi, etc is great and all, it's not the best way to evaluate a blueliner.