Scoring Chances: Game 77, Atlanta Thrashers at Philadelphia Flyers

If you missed it the other day, we have a new post-game feature here at BSH. Thanks to Todd, New Zealand’s biggest Flyers fans, we’re now tracking scoring chances in our team’s games.

You’ve likely seen similar data on CSN’s game broadcast, which for a lot of us is extremely frustrating. Why can’t they make that data public? Why can’t the NHL officially track these? We know that teams individually track them, too, (how many times have you heard Peter Laviolette discuss scoring chances, with numbers, in his post-game presser?) so it’s not like the data isn’t out there.

Well, that’s the goal here. Scoring chances are obviously very valuable bits of information, and now we can learn from what the data shows us, track it over the course of the season, etc. It’s exciting (or should be) if you’re someone who likes to analyze hockey from any level. – Travis

The first five minutes of this game was all Flyers, with five scoring chances and Danny Briere being robbed by an excellent save by Chris Mason. An interference penalty by Ville Leino took away all that momentum and the Flyers didn’t have another scoring chance for the rest of the period, while Bob (and a bit of luck on the Anthony Stewart missed shot) kept them in the game.

The teams traded chances throughout the second until the Flyers started to dominate in the final five minutes, but couldn’t get one past Mason. The start of the third was even, but once Nik Antropov scored the goal off his foot (which doesn’t qualify as a scoring chance), the Flyers heaped on the pressure and registered six chances in the final ten minutes.

Unfortunately for us, no one managed to beat Mason, but Jeff Carter came close putting one off the post.

Data after the jump.

What is a scoring chance? A scoring chance is defined as a clear play directed toward the opposing net from a dangerous scoring area — loosely defined as the top of the circle in and inside the faceoff dots, though sometimes slightly more generous than that depending on the amount of immediately-preceding puck movement or screens in front of the net.

Blocked shots are generally not included but missed shots are. A player is awarded a scoring chance anytime he is on the ice and someone from either team has a chance to score. He is awarded a “chance for” if someone on his team has a chance to score and a “chance against” if the opposing team has a chance to score.

Thanks to Vic Ferrari’s script for allowing this to happen.

For those who look at the charts and see nothing but numbers, I’ll include for the first few posts this (slightly edited) comment from George E. Ays which will hopefully help to explain everything.

The first chart: Team-Period-Time-Comments – all derived from watching the game. I note these for each scoring chance as it takes place. PHI-Opponent-Strength – all derived from Vic’s script. It pulls the time of the event noted, and locates the players on the ice at that time, and regurgitates them.

For example: Meszaros took a shot with 19:20 to go in the first. 15-17-25-28-35-41 were on the ice for the Flyers and 6-10-16-26-33-50 for the Thrashers.

The second chart: The script compiles all the data from the first chart, and sorts it by player number. For B. Coburn: He played 14:03 even strength, and was on the ice for 1 chance for and 9 (!) against. In 29 seconds of PP time he was on for 1 chance for and 0 against. And in 6:24 of SH time he was on for 0 chances for and 1 against.

One note, PP/SH will only include 5v4, and 4v3 situations. It doesn’t compile 5v3 data for the players, at least that I’ve noticed.

The third chart: The script sums the totals for each team by period, and shows them all from the Flyers perspective. The same rules apply for PP/SH, for/against applies to when the Flyers are on the PP or are SH. They do not indicate Flyers’ PP chances and Opponent’s PP chances side by side.

Scoring Chances for NHL Game Number 21152 / Flyers Regular Season Game 77

The Good: Versteeg and Briere all were +3 for scoring chances, Carle was +4

The Ugly: Coburn was a -8, that’s really ugly

The Flyers outchanced the Thrashers 19-12, but only 12-11 at even strength. While the PP didn’t convert, the fact that it had seven chances is at least a good sign.

Ultimately, the Flyers appeared to have done enough to win this game, but Mason was great and the Flyers were unlucky.