G48 2017-01-20 Nashville to change name to P-ref-ators

Game Notes EDM vs NSH

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Nashville Predators (Head Coach: Peter Laviolette) at Edmonton Oilers (Head Coach: Todd McLellan)

NHL Game #689, Rogers Place, 2017-01-20 07:00:00PM (GMT -0700)

Predators 3-2 (SO)

Referees: Francis Charron, Kelly Sutherland
Linesmen: Vaughan Rody, Kiel Murchison

Three Stars: NHL did not record (yet)

• That first penalty by Maroon on Arvidsson was an Olympic calibre dive. The ref who fell for that one should probably just retire right now – the game has passed him by.
• Actually, whatever temporary improvement the league mandated in reffing after the embarrassing STL and ARI game is gone. This was another brutal job, and that uncalled Too Many Men tells you this wasn’t only incompetence.
• The Nuge facial hair thing was pretty funny. Obvious why Maroon and Khaira have been so good – got the playoff beards going already. Maybe time for Milan to get a little beardy! (NARRATOR: “Later that game, he did.”)
• My Twitter feed is filled with the usual love/hate for Kris Russell. In the second period, the sequence from 7:30-7:00 is a good example of why people watching can both like and dislike Russell. Let me explain:
  • The puck is dumped in along the boards into the Oiler zone with a Predator in chase. Russell uses his speed to get the puck first and neutralize the threat. Excellent play. Kris Army rejoices.
  • Except … with two players in support, nonetheless, Russell immediately dumps the puck off the boards and out. The Preds instantly retrieve the puck and are back on the attack, resulting in several shots and a dangerous scoring chance.
  • Kris Army – I dunno, either they presumably stopped watching, or don’t connect the two. Kris Haters meanwhile tear their hair out, recognizing that if Russell had just made a smarter play, that whole sequence would never have happened.
  • It’s this effect by the way that the fancystats are showing – the puck doesn’t easily move up ice with Russell on the ice, and the Oilers are generally spending too much time defending, as a result of which they are outshot and outchanced with him on the ice. Even as visually he makes decent defensive plays, just as he made one or two solid plays in that sequence.
• I’m not a Russell hater at all, I’ve got all day for the guy and his speed and grit on the left side third pairing for a third pairing price. But if you’re chewing up $3M or more of your cap and counting on Russell in a Top 4 role, I’d say you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
• Overall, that second period and the start of the third were … unfortunate.
• Klefbom and Larsson were as awful this game as they were excellent last game.
• Monster few minutes from Looch there, let’s hope this is the start of a reboot and not a one game thing.
• Another OT … why can’t the Oilers look like the fresher team when the other team is on a “Scheduled Loss”? (third in four, second of back to back, on the road).
• 3 on 3 is Connor McDavid time. And yeah, the Preds D did put his hand on the puck in the crease, and that IS a penalty shot.  But no wonder the refs missed it, no reason for them to be looking at the net at that point in time, amirite?
• Oh well … the Oilers didn’t really deserve that game, and without a terrific game from Cam-bot and a good penalty kill that would have been bad, so a point is better than nothing.

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Game at a Glance

Leaderboard

• Matt Hendricks, Milan Lucic each had 1 goal
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins blasted 5 shots on goal
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was most active on the team with 6 shot attempts
• Matt Hendricks was the faceoff champ at 75.0% (3-1)
• Brandon Davidson led the team in on-ice 5v5 shot attempts at 66.7% (12-6)
• Oscar Klefbom trailed the team in 5v5 on-ice shot attempts at 22.0% (9-32)
• Adam Larsson was the big hitter with 4

Goal Overview

Team	Scorer	Period	Time	Strength	ShotType	ShotDist	Danger
NSH	Viktor Arvidsson	2	17:12	EV	Wrist	8.0	2.72
EDM	Matt Hendricks	2	17:53	EV	Wrist	30.0	0.87
NSH	Ryan Ellis	3	6:55	EV	Wrist	60.0	0.13
EDM	Milan Lucic	3	15:31	PP	Tip-In	11.0	2.07

Shootout: Letestu, save. Ellis, scores. Big Rig, pad save. Oh oh, Neal can win it … and does. Crap. Why wasn’t McDavid up first??

Who Won the 5v5 Shot Battle?

Which Battle	Who Won	By How Much
Shots	NSH	32 to 15 (68.1%) … 15 shots on net isn’t going to get you to two points very often
Average Shot Distance Against (ft)	NSH	38 to 53 – this shot distance is bloated by a couple of super long distance Oilers shots
Corsi	NSH	57 to 32 (64.0%)
Score & Venue Adjusted Corsi	NSH	59 to 31 (65.7%) OUCH
Fenwick	NSH	41 to 22 (65.1%)
Dangerous Fenwick	NSH	36 to 16 (69.6%) DOUBLE OUCH

Detailed Metrics

Shot Metrics

Strength	CF	CA	CF%	SACF	SACA	SACF%	FF	FA	FF%	DFF	DFA	DFF%
EV	32	57	36	30.9	59.3	34.3	22	41	34.9	15.6	35.6	30.4
All	56	78	41.8	54.2	81	40.1	43	58	42.6	45.8	47	49.3

Other Metrics

Team	PP	PPG	PIM	FO	Hits	Giveaways	Takeaways
Oilers	4	1	24	40.9	29	20	16
Predators	5	0	22	59.1	22	17	12

How the Players Did (On Ice Shot Attempts)

Comparing raw Corsi with DangerousFenwick: look for big discrepancies one way or the other.

Danger Tables

Forwards are sorted by decreasing CF%. Defensemen and pairs sorted by increasing DFA60. Forward lines by decreasing DFF%. Positions are as listed by the NHL roster page, not necessarily where they played.

Centres

Centre	EVTOI	OZS%2	CF	CA	CF%	SACF%	FF%	DFF%
Hendrix	05:18	0.0	7	7	50	48	50	34.3
D. Caggiula	08:46	20.0	9	10	47.4	45.6	50	56.5
Letestube	07:58	8.3	9	14	39.1	37.2	44.4	28.5
Nuge	11:53	54.5	8	14	36.4	34.7	35.7	36.1
Eberle	12:01	54.5	7	16	30.4	28.7	29.4	21.2
Drai	16:53	43.8	8	19	29.6	28.3	25	31.6
McDavid	17:28	43.8	8	23	25.8	24.4	25	22.5

Wingers

Winger	EVTOI	OZS%2	CF	CA	CF%	SACF%	FF%	DFF%
Kassian	07:03	14.3	8	11	42.1	40	37.5	24.2
Slappy	07:53	25.0	7	10	41.2	39.4	36.4	43.3
Looch	11:13	28.6	10	15	40	38.1	36.8	36.2
Poo	11:08	66.7	8	16	33.3	31.8	27.8	20.3
Maroon	14:53	50.0	7	15	31.8	30.4	28.6	39.9

Defensemen

Defense	EVTOI	OZS%2	CF	CA	CF%	SACF%	FF%	DFF%	DFA60
Davidson	10:39	16.7	12	6	66.7	64.2	73.3	75.8	9.58
Seksy	14:49	38.5	9	14	39.1	37.5	36.4	53.2	14.98
M. Benning	12:39	14.3	12	11	52.2	49.9	62.5	47.1	23.24
Russell	15:24	38.5	12	20	37.5	36	33.3	36.4	35.06
Klefbom	18:05	47.4	9	32	22	20.8	18.8	18.7	83.61
Larsson	17:38	45.0	10	32	23.8	22.6	20.6	19	91.19

Defense Pairings

Pair	EVTOI	DFA60	AvgDistA	CF	CA	CF%	SACF%	FF%	DFF%
M. Benning Davidson	09:53	10.32	50.5	11	6	64.7	62.2	71.4	72.4
Seksy Russell	12:53	14.44	47.3	9	12	42.9	41.2	40	57.2
Larsson Klefbom	16:01	84.29	35.1	7	27	20.6	19.4	17.9	18.5

Forward Lines

Line	EVTOI	CF	CA	CF%	SACF%	FF%	DFF%
Looch D. Caggiula Slappy	07:26	6	9	40	38.2	40	53.5
Hendrix Kassian Letestube	03:43	5	5	50	47.8	55.6	52.9
Maroon Drai McDavid	13:53	7	14	33.3	31.8	28.6	39.9
Eberle Poo Nuge	09:20	6	12	33.3	31.9	30.8	35.1

Game Flows

Rink Maps

Defense Pairings – Shots Given Up

Forward Lines – Shots Taken

Head to Head

NHL Media Highlights

Click the link to play the associated highlight video

Lucic’s big check on Watson

Arvidsson opens the scoring

Lucic’s game-tying tip-in

Ellis’ long-range goal

Hendricks’ five-hole tally

Talbot’s strong glove save

Rinne’s series of athletic saves

Rinne’s sliding save on Letestu

Rinne’s huge pad save in OT

Talbot dives on the puck