Playoffmetrics: Game Two

Much like post one, this is a quick look at what happened in game two.

In terms of shot attempts, the Winnipeg Jets played much better in game two than game one, but the Anaheim Ducks were still the better team overall. Here's a glimpse of the even strength shot attempt battle, courtesy of charts from Natural Stat Trick:

Because this game featured so many penalties that impacted even strength play, I wanted to include the chart that shows all situations as well:

The Jets battled back fiercely in the second period. That is much more indicative of how Winnipeg plays usually. Instead of simply shooting more, the team disrupted the Ducks attempts to shoot. This was a case of the Jets playing the stifling team defense it had done all regular season.

The beginning of the third period put the Jets in a spot: the Ducks turn into a powerhouse possession team when trailing by any amount (since the trade deadline especially). I tweeted this last night:

The Ducks become possession monsters when trailing - so Ducks CF% vs Pavelec's Sv% in third period.

— Kid Ish (@kid_ish) April 19, 2015

In a sense, this was a statement of the obvious. But from that point on, with the score 0-1 favoring Winnipeg, I knew Anaheim wasn't going to give up much at the other end. In other words, I wasn't worried about Andersen's Sv% or the Jets CF%. I knew the Ducks would take over play, and it would only be a matter of time. And indeed, it was.

Here's the datarink chart of game two:

The game's TOI trends were upset by the first period injury to Chris Wagner. Boudreau was juggling lines quite a bit in the second, which may help explain the Jets surge in shot attempts on top of its own improved play. When trailing into the third, Boudreau went back to his normal three-line (that nominally limits Nate Thompson and the fourth line) consistent roll.

Here's the even strength TOI for game two, followed by the TOI at all situations:

Ryan Getzlaf played an awful lot last night. Reminder: he is the best player on the ice for either team. This is the time of year to maximize that and play him as much as possible.

A curious thing to consider: both Kyle Palmieri and Matt Beleskey had lower than expected ice times in game two. I would chalk this up to Wagner's injury disrupting line combos, but by the third period, Jakob Silfverberg and Andrew Cogliano were playing with Ryan Kesler, and Rickard Rakell was centering Emerson Etem and Tim Jackman. Yes, even down a goal.

Both Palmieri and Beleskey had two registered shots on goal and not much else impact in the game. Could they be the first to rotate out on the road?