Two charts to convince you on the importance of things like possession and zone entries in the NHL...in 2000-01 and 2001-02, the NHL tracked time in the offensive zone, and then they stopped. You video gamers out there will rightly note that the EA games continue to track this stat, so don’t ask me why the NHL decided to stop. Anyway, I had the data from those two seasons of every game; by focusing on the team performances in 2 periods, rather than 3, we can remove the majority of score effects and see just how closely these two measures run together. What we actually find? Zone time has a tighter, more normal distribution. What does this mean? There are better and worse ways to use your time in the offensive zone, which is why there are so many people interested in entering the zone with possession, and controlling the puck while in the zone (and soon, we will have measures to demonstrate “useful” or “productive” possession).