Analytics with Alison: Eberle's impact

Jordan Eberle had the lone Kraken goal in Sunday's matchup against the Rangers. And wasn't it pretty? Adam Larsson started the play going north with a stretch pass from the defensive zone. Jaden Schwartz ultimately corralled the puck and sent it to Eberle who moved the puck to his backhand and fired off a shot to beat Igor Shesterkin high glove side.

"A backhand is a deceptive shot, you just try to turn and fire as quick as you can," Eberle said.
"You get a pass, you're not really thinking, you're just turning and firing, I think it's that simple."
Simple! Well maybe for Eberle. The forward is a player who has been doing a lot of things right that lead to scoring.
Let's dig in.
Eberle comes to Seattle as a player who's known for his ability to transition with the puck and create or take advantage of quality scoring opportunities. If we look at where on the ice the former New York Islander makes an impact using HockeyViz.com, we see a vast amount of red especially in in the most dangerous areas of the ice - that's where, when Eberle is playing, shots are happening at a rate higher than league average. (We also see that Eberle isn't too shabby when it comes to defensive play. The bottom image shows blue for where opponents are generating less than league average.)

But back to offense. How does that get created? Well first, the right winger knows how to create space and to do so quickly. According to tracking work done by All Three Zones' Corey Sznajder, Eberle has proven to generate offense off the rush just like he helped do in his goal Sunday night. Eberle was in the top three individual producers in terms of rush offense on his former team, and this season, according to Sportlogiq, Eberle leads all Kraken skaters in rush chances (6).
Second, once Eberle gets into the offensive zone, he's firing a lot of pucks and he's doing so from the most dangerous areas. Going into the game against the Rangers, the Regina native is averaging 13.75 shot attempts per 60 minutes of play (per Evolving-Hockey.com), which is the fourth highest rate on team. And in terms of where those attempts are coming from, according to Sportlogiq, this season Eberle has 10 shots from the slot (only Ryan Donato and Joonas Donskoi have more). When it comes to overall shot quality, looking at MoneyPuck.com's flurry-adjusted expected goals, Eberle is second on the team with 2.2.
And if the assistant captain isn't going to shoot, he's setting up his teammates for scoring chances. This season, he's passed to the slot for shot attempts six times.
Now, of course, all of this play is even better when pucks end up in the net. And the 31-year-old would certainly enjoy that, too, but Eberle is doing all the things that lead to scoring. It's also worth noting that in his 12 years in the NHL, there's only been one season when he didn't average more than two points per 60 minutes of play. This season, Eberle is still shooting and generating quality at a rate that is in line with his other seasons (in fact, he's shooting more), and so if all the underlying behavior keeps up, he should continue to be the solid offensive contributor we've come to expect.