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Until the NHL , defending the blue line will be a key part of a defenceman鈥檚 job. Because the players can鈥檛 enter the zone until the puck crosses the blue line, mounting a defence at the line is all-important: if you can stop the puck from entering the zone or force the opponent to give up clear possession by dumping it in, you鈥檝e increased your chances of preventing a clear scoring chance.

About a month ago, I looked at the Canucks defence corps and their . Erik Gudbranson looked particularly good at preventing controlled zone entries and was also the most effective at breaking up entry attempts and creating turnovers. Meanwhile, Troy Stecher looked particularly terrible at preventing zone entries, like he was actively inviting opposing forwards over the blue line and offering scrumptious baked goods in the defensive zone.

There was one caveat: a small sample size. Stecher鈥檚 statistics came from just a few games, so it wasn鈥檛 necessarily an accurate picture of his abilities. In the month since publishing that article, has collected microstats from more Canucks games and, with the larger sample size, Stecher looks significantly better.

Sean Tierney has of all NHL defencemen tracked by Sznajder. Here are the Canucks defencemen:

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With the additional data, Stecher has gone from being worse than Luca Sbisa at preventing controlled zone entries to right around league average. Where he鈥檚 gone up significantly is his break-up percentage, creating turnovers at the blueline on 12.2% of the times he has been targeted with an entry.

The defencemen nearest to Stecher on the chart include Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dougie Hamilton, Justin Faulk, and Kyle Quincey.

As for the rest of the Canucks defence, Sbisa hasn鈥檛 moved much, still allowing controlled zone entries by the opposition over 73% of the times he was targeted. Alex Edler is in about the same spot as well, a little below league average in preventing controlled entries and break-up percentage.

Gudbranson still looks good in the larger sample, but he鈥檚 not longer the best Canucks defenceman in either statistic, thanks to a big jump up by Chris Tanev, who makes a lot more sense as the Canucks defenceman most likely to prevent a controlled zone entry by the opposition.

It鈥檚 important to note that his is just one component of defence and says nothing about each defenceman鈥檚 ability to defend within the defensive zone or their capabilities elsewhere on the ice. Not far from Sbisa on the chart is Mattias Ekholm and he is a shot suppression beast. Still, preventing controlled zone entries is, in general, better than allowing them.

There is another aspect to the blue line that we can look at using Tierney鈥檚 visualization, as the same tool includes a chart that combines preventing controlled zone entries with enabling controlled zone exits. Essentially, if a defenceman is in the top right quadrant of the chart below, they both prevent the opponents from entering the zone and also break out of the zone effectively with possession of the puck.

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Chalk this up as another way that Tanev is the best defenceman on the Canucks. He leads the team in both preventing entries and enabling breakouts.

Ben Hutton is also above average in both metrics, which is a positive sign as he heads into his third season with the Canucks. The only other defenceman with above average zone exit numbers is Sbisa, whose undercut his positive zone exit numbers.

Gudbranson is a concern. I鈥檝e before and he鈥檚 better than only Nikita Tryamkin in that category. The Canucks wound up spending long shifts in the defensive zone because of his inability to effectively exit the zone and it could once again be an issue in the coming season.
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