[Paywall] How Ethan Bear’s ability to retrieve dump-ins has stabilized the Canucks defence
December 2, 2022
[Paywall] How Ethan Bear’s ability to retrieve dump-ins has stabilized the Canucks defence
18 comments
**Summary:**
Cam Charron (previously an analyst for the Leafs, now writer for the Athletic) has been manually tracking certain microstats this season as part of his writing. In this article, he evaluates the Canucks D and the details of their zone entries/exits. Main points are as follows:
* Canucks are bottom 5-10 in most defensive metrics per Natural Stat Trick, and a lot of this is attributable to allowing more zone entries than they gain, which is mostly due to poor breakouts by the D
* However, addition of Ethan Bear has improved these metrics to the point where “he has been the Canucks’ best defenceman at preventing the opposition from recovering pucks, and it isn’t particularly close”
* Per the numbers, Bear **leads all Canucks dmen in both opposition recovery % (lowest at 47%) and pass completion (63%)**. Myers is last in both categories by a large margin (>60% opposition recovery, <40% pass completion)
* OEL has been the Canucks’ second best dman opposition recovery %, due in large part to being paired with Bear (previous to this pairing, he was last)
* **Overall, Canucks are allowing fewer scoring chances/60 via improved forecheck/rush defense compared to before Bear’s arrival.** The Canucks’ improved defense is also due to better retrievals/breakouts in general, but Bear’s contribution is significant and he looks like a solid top-4 option on the right side
Stabilized our defence? Are we watching the same team?
Lol the worst time for this to come out….
I’d like to add it’s also a willingness thing. Too many players on this team don’t necessarily lack the ability, its the willingness that seems to be an issue.
Hard to say that after the team gets pumped 5-1 by teams they should beat…..
Not to mention they’ve allowed less than 3 goals 3 times in 25 games. Stabilized? Y’all don’t know the first thing about stabilized……
There’s an argument to be made most nights that Bear has been their second best D overall.
And he was a healthy scratch on a defence of a team with Cup aspirations. Not unlike Schenn.
Ethan Bear is probably already in the top-5 best defenders the Canucks acquired/signed in the last 10 years. It’s an underwhelming list, but he’s already near the top.
OEL & Schmidt are better, Myers probably, *maybe* Hamonic. This comment bummed me out lol
How sad it is that a non everyday player can come and be leading the défense in any category.
I feel like Bear can turn himself into Malik 2.0
Nothing is stable about this defence. Have you been watching the games?
What an ill timed article. I don’t subscribe to this one. Release it after the sharks game and I’d read it.
Love Bear and I actually think he looks decent (Fwiw I never played hockey and know essentially nothing about tactics) but yeah I wouldn’t call our D stabilized
I feel like bear is coming from a structured team and is just using his knowledge he learnt there to be more effective on our shitty defence
He was a good acquisition. Stillman was fucking horrible
Here’s the only thing I need to see from Bear:
***BOARDS AND OUT.***
No more fancy shit, he has a real problem not clearing the zone sometimes.
The D is stable. Trash, of course. But stable trash.
Sorry but did we not lose the last two games 10 to 2. Is this what we are stabilized at?
What a fucking sad state of affairs this team is when a basic ability is presented as the second coming of Jesus, holy shit
18 comments
**Summary:**
Cam Charron (previously an analyst for the Leafs, now writer for the Athletic) has been manually tracking certain microstats this season as part of his writing. In this article, he evaluates the Canucks D and the details of their zone entries/exits. Main points are as follows:
* Canucks are bottom 5-10 in most defensive metrics per Natural Stat Trick, and a lot of this is attributable to allowing more zone entries than they gain, which is mostly due to poor breakouts by the D
* However, addition of Ethan Bear has improved these metrics to the point where “he has been the Canucks’ best defenceman at preventing the opposition from recovering pucks, and it isn’t particularly close”
* A graph is provided comparing Canucks D rate in allowing opponents to recover shoot-ins and first pass completion (e.g. how often do forechecking forwards retrieve their dump-ins vs Canucks D, and if they don’t, how successful was the Canucks D’s first pass out. The graph can be found [here](https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2022/12/01095127/Canucks-regular-defencemen-on-first-touch-following-an-opposition-shoot-in.png) (might be paywalled?)
* Per the numbers, Bear **leads all Canucks dmen in both opposition recovery % (lowest at 47%) and pass completion (63%)**. Myers is last in both categories by a large margin (>60% opposition recovery, <40% pass completion)
* OEL has been the Canucks’ second best dman opposition recovery %, due in large part to being paired with Bear (previous to this pairing, he was last)
* **Overall, Canucks are allowing fewer scoring chances/60 via improved forecheck/rush defense compared to before Bear’s arrival.** The Canucks’ improved defense is also due to better retrievals/breakouts in general, but Bear’s contribution is significant and he looks like a solid top-4 option on the right side
Stabilized our defence? Are we watching the same team?
Lol the worst time for this to come out….
I’d like to add it’s also a willingness thing. Too many players on this team don’t necessarily lack the ability, its the willingness that seems to be an issue.
Hard to say that after the team gets pumped 5-1 by teams they should beat…..
Not to mention they’ve allowed less than 3 goals 3 times in 25 games. Stabilized? Y’all don’t know the first thing about stabilized……
There’s an argument to be made most nights that Bear has been their second best D overall.
And he was a healthy scratch on a defence of a team with Cup aspirations. Not unlike Schenn.
Ethan Bear is probably already in the top-5 best defenders the Canucks acquired/signed in the last 10 years. It’s an underwhelming list, but he’s already near the top.
OEL & Schmidt are better, Myers probably, *maybe* Hamonic. This comment bummed me out lol
How sad it is that a non everyday player can come and be leading the défense in any category.
I feel like Bear can turn himself into Malik 2.0
Nothing is stable about this defence. Have you been watching the games?
What an ill timed article. I don’t subscribe to this one. Release it after the sharks game and I’d read it.
Love Bear and I actually think he looks decent (Fwiw I never played hockey and know essentially nothing about tactics) but yeah I wouldn’t call our D stabilized
I feel like bear is coming from a structured team and is just using his knowledge he learnt there to be more effective on our shitty defence
He was a good acquisition. Stillman was fucking horrible
Here’s the only thing I need to see from Bear:
***BOARDS AND OUT.***
No more fancy shit, he has a real problem not clearing the zone sometimes.
The D is stable. Trash, of course. But stable trash.
Sorry but did we not lose the last two games 10 to 2. Is this what we are stabilized at?
What a fucking sad state of affairs this team is when a basic ability is presented as the second coming of Jesus, holy shit