Throughout the playoffs last year, I collected a lot of my own data on team’s power plays and penalty kills. And while I’ve written about more general topics using the data (like here and here), before the season starts I want to take a detailed look at how the Rangers performed throughout the postseason. As a part of the data that I tracked, I recorded the breakout formations used by the Rangers on the power play and penalty kill formations used in the defensive zone.
Here are diagrams of the Dallas Cut, Canuck-Center Lane, Drop Pass, and Five Back formations used during power plays:
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Terms:
-Suc% = The percentage of entries that were successful
-Control% = The percentage of entries that were controlled
-# Pass = The number of passes completed before entering the zone
-InForm% = The percentage of how many times the team successfully got into formation in the offensive zone
-Time into Form = The total time it took to get into formation in the offensive zone
-Time to 1st SA = The total time it took for the offensive team to register their first shot attempt
-Time in Zone = The total time the offensive team spent in the zone
-SA = Average shot attempts per entry
-SC = Average scoring chances per entry
-S = Average shots per entry
A lot of Rangers fans are usually frustrated with the power play but during the postseason, New York did a perfectly fine job at entering the zone.