Here we are, the 2021-22 season started yesterday with a couple of attractive match-ups, including Zurich hosting Geneva in a re-match of last year’s semifinal.
Zurich started the game like their lives depended on today’s result, and almost never looked back.
The first period was 100% in favor of the home team, bombarding Gauthier Descloux from the point but also getting a couple of good high-danger chances. But more than anything, Zurich was holding onto the puck, not letting Geneva space or time to build anything, and forcing turnovers.
Geneva found an answer through their Power play early in the second period, finally building on their great passing game, eventually leading to a goal that would be disallowed for a clear offside. But you could see how the succession of passes had forced the Zurich players to collapse on their net, opening the back door for Winnik.
But once that little scare gone, Zurich finally scored once, twice and three times to get away with the game. The Lions were rewarded for playing a very fast game, moving the puck in control and showing a lot of support that was not always there last season.
The third goal by Geering is a perfect example of this, with the captain defenceman jumping in the play to get a clean shot on a Descloux screened by all the players that had collapsed on his net.
The third period was pretty even, with Geneva getting on the scoreboard on a Power play goal that rewarded their effort in that situation, and a nice 4v4 play from the veteran Filppula.
The game in numbers
You can see on the Game Flow, Zurich was never in danger and ended with a 76% chance of winning that game with 3.06 expected goals to 1.84.
At 5v5, it was a clear domination from the locals with 49 shot attempts to 25, 2.08 expected goals to 0.5 and 3-0 on the scorebard.
It was only on the Power play that Geneva was dangerous, scoring one goal for 1.24 expected, using their trademarked serie of lateral passes to feed one timers on the side.
The one thing going well for Zurich was their transition. They clearly wanted to keep the puck as much as possible on their stick and not dump it. The forwards were also moving a lot in the neutral zone, changing lanes to force defencemen to loosen up their grid at the blue line.
It worked, with 56% of zone entries in control, which is above average in the NL. In comparison, Geneva only managed to control 42% of their entries, not a good score.
In nets, Gauthier Descloux faced 34 shots on net in our tracking, allowing 0.94 goal more than expected (4 for 3.06 xG). To his defence, the own goal (given to Roe) was tough luck.
On the other side, Ludovic Waeber was pretty much on par, allowing 0.16 goal above expectation but otherwise showing a solid game with 70% of controlled saves.
On the bright side for Geneva, the leaders were already showing mid-season form, with Winnik and Pouliot leading the team offensively and Tömmernes being absolutely everywhere on the ice and a master in Transition with 11 exits and 8 entries tried, almost half of them leading to a shot for Geneva.
For Zurich it was really a team effort. You can see how everyone participated in Transition in the chart below but Andrighetto, Quenneville and Krüger collected the most xG Contribution for their overall involvement.
Andrighetto who got 0.82 expected goal on his 9 shot attempts but didn’t score… yet.
Enjoy and don’t forget to subscribe on NL Ice Data here: nlicedata.com if you want to access all the visuals report for that game, see all the player game cards, etc.
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