Breaking Down Frank Nazar’s Line

Frank Nazar's third line generated a lot of discourse following the Chicago Blackhawks' 4-3 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets. I decided to break down some stats and video.

Nazar centered Oliver Moore and Ryan Donato, generating a 61.90 percent shot attempt share and 63.36 percent expected goals share (both at 5-on-5 and team highs). Those numbers came against the Jets' third line centered by Adam Lowry— whose line leads Winnipeg in expected goals share with 67.9 percent (according to HockeyStats.com). While the Jets aren't expected to be a strong team this season, they entered Thursday night winning four of their last six games.

According to my tracking data for the Blackhawks, Nazar's line had the highest number of successful zone entries with 16. The next highest was Connor Bedard's with 11, and the other two combined for 19. Of the third line's zone entries, 53 percent were controlled entries. Chicago, as a whole, made 59 successful zone entries; 49 percent of which were controlled entries.

Controlled entries made a difference for Nazar's line. Their entries generated the highest number of unblocked shots (nine), and their controlled entries yielded the best looks (six unblocked shots). Let's look at an entry that led to the Blackhawks third goal.

The clip starts with Oliver Moore carrying the puck up the neutral zone following a face-off win at center ice. Both of Winnipeg's defensemen are tracking Moore and Nazar, who is in the middle lane and presenting himself as an option, but Ryan Donato is driving wide, uncontested. At 0:02, Moore conducts a cross-ice pass, and Donato receives the puck as it bounces off the boards, drawing in Dylan Samberg (WPG 54). A moment later (0:03), Donato takes advantage of Samberg's poor positioning (feet pointed away from the play), stickhandles his way to space, drives to the left circle, and scores.

Donato led the team in zone entries with seven, five of which were controlled carries. Here's a clip where Alex Vlasic makes a smart neutral zone play that led to an entry by Donato.

Jeff Blashill was quoted that he doesn't view his lines as first line, second line, etc. In terms of ice time, Nazar's line was at 9:55 minutes, second highest with four more minutes than Anton Frondell's line (the de facto second line, according to the pre-game lineup). Nazar's line also had 66.67 percent of their starts in the offensive zone, tied for highest with Connor Bedard's line.

Traditionally, the third line is often viewed as one of the checking lines or a more defensively responsible line. Nazar's line only gave up one high danger chance (compared to the eight Bedard's gave up) and had a .47 expected goals against (Bedard's had .86 and Frondell's line had .30). In fact, Nazar's line struggled with breakouts; notably, Oliver Moore did.

In the clip above, Nazar's line struggled with applying pressure, and with two opportunities to exit, Moore failed on both. Moore finished the game with three giveaways (second to Sam Rinzel's seven).

Moore had five zone entries (two controlled), and those generated the most unblocked shots (five). He also had three shot attempts, three shots on goal, and three scoring chances. With Moore on the ice, the Hawks had a 60 percent unblocked shot attempt share and a 60.03 percent expected goals share.

Frank Nazar's goal was also created from a play in the defensive zone. Nazar collected a rebound that deflected high in the zone; he took advantage, turned on his jets, and scored.

Nazar's line had a solid night against the Jets. As a team, there's a lot more to nitpick. They finished with poor possession stats (37.78 percent shot attempt share) and struggled to generate meaningful scoring chances (37.39 percent expected goals share). While the power play is improving, thanks to Bedard, the Hawks still need to drive to the middle of the ice at 5-on-5. Otherwise, they're relying on the rush to do the scoring for them.