Steve's Notebook: Zone Entry Stats, Nick Lardis, and Frank Nazar

If you've been reading my recaps lately, I've been doing a lot of zone entry tracking. I don't expect to do this for every game, but it's certainly made watching this team far more enjoyable. It helps that Connor Bedard is back in the lineup.

Once I refine my methodology, I'll post something detailing what goes into that. For now, the findings are that the Hawks tend to favor uncontrolled entries versus controlled entries. It's only three games, but 43 percent of their entries have been controlled entries.

Obviously, with Bedard, that number will increase. He had seven entries, five of which were controlled. According to All Three Zones, Bedard was in the 98th percentile in controlled entries last season.

There's also some news to discuss.

Nick Lardis

With the return of Bedard to the lineup, Nick Lardis was sent down to the Rockford IceHogs on Oct. 14. The demotion isn't too surprising. When Lardis was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Blackhawks were outscored 7-1. Lardis only had three giveaways (which is middle of the pack on this team); without rewatching his shifts, it's difficult to say whether his play away from the puck impacted Chicago's defense. I lean towards this being a team issue rather than a Lardis-issue.

Lardis' five shots on goal and eight shot attempts are also middle of the pack for a team that already needs to be more trigger-happy. He had seven scoring chances, none of them high danger. Lardis also averaged 9:14 at 5-on-5 with a total of 7:45 on the power play.

The concern is that by sending Lardis down to Rockford, he won't learn how to translate his scoring ability to the NHL.

The chart above shows Lardis' shot location. All of them are outside of the slot. Now, the Hawks as a team have an allergic reaction to getting inside the slot, so it's not just Lardis. But learning how to score at the NHL won't be done at the AHL level. It's just a different game.

Lardis had a shooting rate of 5.48/60 at five-on-five. That currently ranks sixth on the team.

Nazar Returns

Frank Nazar is back and is taking the 3C spot. Nazar has a 38.9 percent expected goals share and three points through five games. Jeff Blashill has alluded to wanting the third line to be an offensive line. Ryan Donato has some of the better zone entry stats in my incredibly small sample size of three games (14 successful entries, five of which are carries). Oliver Moore is still trying to figure out his game with two points (both goals) and a 5.88 shots/60 rate (third highest on this offensivly challenged team). It'll be interesting to see if Nazar drives anything.

But will Nazar move back to the 2C spot? Frondell leads the team in points with six, and of his thirteen successful zone entries, eight have been carries (again, only the last three games have been tracked). Frondell has been a lot more defensively responsible than Nazar, but I'm still not sold that either player is a long-term center on this team.

I guess we'll find out.