Goal and shot differential

by James Mirtle on Nov 8, 2008 4:06 PM CST Comment 0 comments

A quick stats breakdown prior to Saturday night's games. First, goal differential to this point in the season (minus empty netters):

	Team	GP	GF/G	GA/G	Gdif
1	SJS	14	3.43	2.36	1.07
2	BUF	13	3.08	2.15	0.92
3	MTL	11	3.27	2.36	0.91
4	CHI	12	3.42	2.58	0.83
5	BOS	13	2.92	2.23	0.69
6	VAN	14	3.21	2.64	0.57
7	MIN	12	2.67	2.17	0.50
8	NJD	12	2.75	2.25	0.50
9	NYR	16	2.56	2.13	0.44
10	PIT	13	2.62	2.38	0.23
11	OTT	14	2.64	2.43	0.21
12	CAR	14	2.71	2.57	0.14
13	DET	12	3.33	3.25	0.08
14	PHI	12	3.58	3.50	0.08
15	ANA	16	3.06	3.00	0.06
16	STL	12	3.00	3.00	0.00
17	CGY	14	3.07	3.14	-0.07
18	WSH	12	2.92	3.08	-0.17
19	LAK	12	2.42	2.67	-0.25
20	NSH	13	3.23	3.54	-0.31
21	PHX	11	2.18	2.55	-0.36
22	TBL	12	2.17	2.58	-0.42
23	CBJ	14	2.93	3.36	-0.43
24	TOR	14	2.79	3.29	-0.50
25	FLA	12	2.25	2.83	-0.58
26	COL	13	2.85	3.46	-0.62
27	EDM	13	2.54	3.15	-0.62
28	NYI	13	2.54	3.46	-0.92
29	ATL	14	2.71	3.71	-1.00
30	DAL	13	3.00	4.00	-1.00

Goal differential's a good way to determine how well teams are playing, moreso than the standings in a lot of cases. The season is actually 16 per cent over at this point, so it's not too early to start formulating some projections on where teams are going to end up.

Note where Detroit is at this point.

Here's a look at shot differential, just for interest's sake:

	TEAM	GP	SOG	SOGA	DIF
1	San Jose	14	37.6	24.7	12.9
2	Detroit	12	36.9	29.3	7.7
3	Toronto	14	34.8	28	6.8
4	New Jersey	12	32.3	27	5.3
5	NY Rangers	16	32	27.8	4.2
6	Colorado	13	29.2	26.2	3
7	Washington	12	31.9	29.3	2.7
8	Los Angeles	12	26.6	24	2.6
9	Columbus	14	30.5	28.4	2.1
10	Dallas	13	28.2	26.6	1.6
11	Montreal	11	31.8	30.7	1.1
12	Calgary	14	30.4	29.9	0.5
13	Buffalo	13	29.4	28.8	0.5
14	Nashville	13	27.8	27.7	0.1
15	Chicago	12	30	30.3	-0.3
16	NY Islanders	13	31.5	31.9	-0.4
17	Ottawa	14	29.4	29.9	-0.6
18	Boston	13	31.1	31.9	-0.8
19	Vancouver	14	27.3	29.4	-2.1
20	Phoenix	11	28.6	31.2	-2.5
21	Carolina	14	29.6	32.6	-3
22	Anaheim	16	29.5	32.8	-3.3
23	Edmonton	13	27.5	31.4	-3.8
24	Philadelphia	12	26.5	30.5	-4
25	Atlanta	14	29.1	33.3	-4.2
26	St. Louis	12	24.8	29.8	-5
27	Pittsburgh	13	27.1	32.3	-5.2
28	Minnesota	12	25.7	31.1	-5.4
29	Florida	12	27.6	33.8	-6.2
30	Tampa Bay	12	30.1	36.3	-6.2

Shot differential's a stat much less tied to winning, something Tyler Dellow has looked at in the past. Still, with San Jose leading both categories, they're the class of the league to this point (and I don't even know that Evgeni Nabokov's injury will hurt them all that much).

It's interesting to see Pittsburgh and Minnesota on the low end here, with Toronto way up at the top.

From The Rink: An SB Nation Community

Network Bar

From The Rink -

SB Nation's hockey blog