Pacioretty's impact on Desharnais' play in game 2

David Desharnais is a better player with Max Pacioretty. In fact, every player is a better player with Pacioretty. That said, Desharnais' performance in game 1 viewed side by side with his performance in game 2 speaks volumes about the direct impact number 67 has when he's in the lineup.

Number 51's even-strength shot-attempts-for percentage was a vulgar 30% in game 1, with an 83% offensive-zone start percentage. His o-zone start% actually dropped to 71% in game 2, while his SAF% jumped to 55%,

Desharnais engaged in 40 puck-possession events (excluding line-carries) in game 1; for an average of 3.61 events per-minute played. In game 2, Desharnais engaged in 67 puck-possession events; for an average of 4.96 events per-minute played. His ratio of successful plays to failed plays was 1.85 during game 1, but jumped to an impressive 2.35 with the return of Pacioretty.

GAME 1 POSSESSION EVENTS (GREEN IS SUCCESSFUL, RED IS FAILED)

GAME 2 POSSESSION EVENTS (GREEN IS SUCCESSFUL, RED IS FAILED)

Desharnais had a much larger impact on driving possession up ice during game 2, as the number of line-carries he produced doubled.

GAME 1 LINE CARRIES

GAME 2 LINE CARRIES

Another example of Desharnais impact moving possession can be seen by his neutral-zone passing game. He was successful with only 2 of 3 even-strength passes in the neutral-zone during game 1, but improved to 5 for 5 in game 2.

GAME 1 NEUTRAL-ZONE PASSING

GAME 2 NEUTRAL-ZONE PASSING

In terms of offensive-zone possession, Desharnais went from 4 offensive-zone loose-puck recoveries in game 1 to 11 in game 2. He attempted only 5 passes in the offensive-zone during game 1, but that total jumped to 8 in game 2. He helped create only 1 even-strength scoring-chance in each of the games. Due in part to the fact that he has yet to complete a pass to the slot during this series (0 attempts in game 1, 2 attempts in game 2).

Also of note, Desharnais averaged a team-leading 5 controlled entries for every 1 dump or chip in during the season. Through the first 2 games of the 2015 NHL playoffs, his controlled entry to dump-in ratio is only 0.33. Expressed simply, Desharnais has yet to create offense off of the rush.

In game 2 David Desharnais showed himself to be a much more productive player with Max Pacioretty. The second game of the series saw him more involved in the play (events per-minute played), drive possession out of the defensive-zone and into the offensive-zone (line-carries and neutral-zone passes), while substantially increasing his opportunities with possession (loose-puck recoveries) in the offensive-zone.

This post is just a small example of the depth of data available through the detailed puck-possession "eventing" process used at Sportlogiq. Events per-minute played as just 1 example is a strong indication of a player's health; with injured, or recovering players showing an obvious drop in this metric. Similar stories can easily be found in the data, allowing us to pull the curtain back and analyze not only which team is producing more shot attempts, but how they are producing those shot attempts.

The next wave of hockey data has arrived.