Puck possession has become more of a focus in the NHL over the past few seasons, and I don’t see that trend changing. A well placed chip-and-chase, or even a dump-and-chase, can also be effective, but successful coaches have encouraged puck possession more than ever recently.

A few weeks ago I looked at defencemen who are successful at passing or transporting the puck out of the defensive zone, and we looked at those who excel at zone entries. 

Today let’s look at the forwards who are most successful at entering the zone, as well as creating scoring chances on those entries.

Once again a big shout out to Mike and Kenny at SportLogic for providing the zone entries, and scoring chances off of entries. I added in TOI and five-on-five points.

We included all forwards with at least 100 zone entries (there were 280), and I have sorted them by team. I included this many due to the pending trade week leading up to the NHL draft on October 6th and the start of free agency on October 9th.

*CE with SCA is Controlled Entry with a Scoring Chance After.**
*CE with SCA Rate is the rate of how many scoring chances are created per controlled entry.**

What does it mean? Good question.

Here is what stood out to me.

1. Colorado had 12 players with 100+ carries, which was the most. And all 12 had at least 132 controlled entries. Ridiculous. Vegas was next with nine. Had the Avs stayed healthy, I think they would have defeated Dallas. Remaining healthy is a key part of winning in the playoffs.

2. Patrice Bergeron only had 85 controlled entries. He was 10th on the Bruins and not among the top 280 forwards in the NHL. David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand carried the puck in mainly for that line, but I wonder how much of that is due to Bergeron slowing down a bit. He played 92% of his 5×5 time with those two, but Pastrnak had 23 more 5×5 points and Marchand had 21. In the games I watched, Bergeron looked a bit behind them. It is something to watch for moving forward, and heading into the 2022 Olympics. Bergeron will be 36 then and I’m not sold he is a lock to make the squad.

3. The Jets had four forwards in the top-21 in controlled entries. Not surprising they had five in the top-40 in 5×5 points. If they can rebuild their blueline they could be very dangerous.

4. Sean Monahan played the 38th most 5×5 minutes among NHL forwards. He was 138th in controlled entries and 141st in 5×5 points. He needs to be more involved in rushes up the ice. When he did have the puck on his stick, he created a high % of scoring chances. His 31.4% scoring chance rate was 21st best amongst NHL forwards. He needs to have the puck on his stick more when he enters the zone.

5. Dallas struggled to score in the regular season, and one reason was they didn’t create much off the rush. @Jamie Benn led them with 178 controlled entries, which was 103rd in the NHL. The Stars offensive players found their legs in the bubble and are carrying the puck much more frequently. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team completely change how they played from the regular season to the playoffs and win like the Stars have. They defeated Calgary and Colorado in high scoring games, and now they have clamped down against Vegas, although Vegas’ forward couldn’t score in a brothel right now.

6. @Nicklas Backstrom had a tough year offensively for Washington. Teammate Richard Panik tied him with 22 points at 5×5, despite playing 225 fewer minutes than Backstrom.

7. I knew the Penguins had a lot of injuries, but I didn’t know Teddy Blueger played the most 5×5 minutes (884) of any Penguins forward. Good for Blueger, but when he and Dominick Simon are playing the most 5×5 minutes, it is amazing the Penguins managed to finish 5th in the Eastern Conference. Blueger had 15 points at 5×5 and despite playing the most minutes he was 11th in controlled zone entries.

8. Edmonton only had five full-time forwards with over 100 zone entries. They added @Tyler Ennis and @Andreas Athanasiou at the deadline. @James Neal was at 98 (missed 16 games due to injury), and @Kailer Yamamoto was solid when he joined the team. But it is clear they need a few players in their bottom six who can carry the puck.

I doubt many Oilers fans would have had Jujhar Khaira 5th on the team in zone entries, and he had the highest Scoring chance % among the bottom six. And he rarely played with McDavid and Draisaitl. Defenceman Darnell Nurse was 5th on the Oilers with 109 zone entries. They need more forwards entering the zone with the puck on their stick.

Gaetan Haas should be an upgrade offensively over Riley Sheahan. His speed and offensive ability lead me to believe he will create more, and that might allow his line to spend less time defending. But either way, re-signing one of Ennis or Athanasiou makes a lot of sense. Athanasiou would be re-signed now if the Oilers didn’t have to qualify him at $3 million. I think there is a player there, but at what cost? Ennis is a smart player, and he has signed one-year deals each of the past two summers. I’d look at re-signing him, if they can’t come to an agreement on Athanasiou.

It wasn’t a surprise to see McDavid and Draisaitl sitting 5th and 6th in controlled entries. They have the puck a lot, and over 30% of the time it leads to a scoring chance. Draisaitl was 39th in CESCA%, and due to his skill I think he can boost that up a few % points in the future and sit around 32 or 33%.

And because the Oilers have two dominant puck-carrying centres, they don’t necessarily need a dominant puck transporter to play with them. They need a smart, skilled wingers, who can retrieve pucks, but also find the inevitable openings in the D-zone that McDavid and Draisaitl will create when the enter the zone.

Ryan Rishaug is scared of heights. Jason Strudwick reached the top of the Snow Valley Aerial Park with his eight-year-old daughter, but while she walked the plank and did the free-fall drop at the end, he chickened out and had to do the walk of shame down the structure.

So we want to help both of them conquer their fears. And in doing so you can help kids play sports. Once we raise $10,000 for KidSport, Struds and Rishaug will both “walk the plank” and do the free-fall (four stories high) at the Aerial Park.

We had a great first week raising over $5,500, and I’d like to reach our goal this week. Any donation of $20, $50, $100 or more will be greatly appreciated. You get a tax receipt while helping some kids play sports and you will get a great laugh watching the video (yes, we will record the entire thing) when these two conquer their fears.

Thanks in advance.