Comparing this year to last: Special teams

by James Mirtle on Jan 12, 2009 9:41 PM CST in Statistics Comment 6 comments

One more reason for the pile that the Bruins have been excellent and the Stars awful this season: special teams.

You always hear they're important, but a good way of quantifying that is to think of it this way. Teams play about 12 per cent of the game on the power play — and that's where they do about 30 per cent of their scoring.

Here's a look at how teams are doing when up a man in comparison to last year's figures:

		2007-08	2008-09
RK	TEAM	PP PCT	PP PCT	PP Dif
1	St. Louis	14.0	21.7	7.7%
2	Chicago	15.9	22.8	6.9%
3	Detroit	20.8	27.4	6.6%
4	Boston	17.6	23.8	6.2%
5	Philadelphia	21.8	26.9	5.1%
6	Atlanta	16.4	21.1	4.7%
7	Anaheim	16.6	21.3	4.7%
8	San Jose	18.7	22.9	4.2%
9	Washington	18.8	22.5	3.7%
10	NY Islanders	14.5	17.9	3.4%
11	Minnesota	18.9	21.7	2.8%
12	New Jersey	15.6	18.1	2.5%
13	Buffalo	18.0	20.4	2.4%
14	Calgary	16.8	18.9	2.1%
15	Toronto	17.8	19.9	2.1%
16	Colorado	14.6	16.6	2.0%
17	Edmonton	16.6	18.2	1.6%
18	Los Angeles	17.5	18.5	1.0%
19	Vancouver	17.0	17.3	0.3%
20	Ottawa	18.3	17.9	-0.4%
21	Nashville	14.8	13.3	-1.5%
22	NY Rangers	16.5	14.0	-2.5%
23	Pittsburgh	20.4	17.2	-3.2%
24	Carolina	18.8	15.6	-3.2%
25	Dallas	18.0	14.4	-3.6%
26	Tampa Bay	19.3	15.7	-3.6%
27	Columbus	14.8	10.8	-4.0%
28	Florida	19.2	15.1	-4.1%
29	Phoenix	18.5	12.8	-5.7%
30	Montreal	24.1	15.2	-8.9%
	Average	17.7	18.7

This might be the only good news in St. Louis this season.

Detroit, meanwhile, has been torching teams with the man advantage, while Montreal's magic left town with Mark Streit apparently. Phoenix and Columbus have also been atrocious on the power play.

Here are the PK numbers:

		2007-08	2008-09
RK	TEAM	PK PCT	PK PCT	PK Dif
1	Boston	78.6	83.3	4.7%
2	Los Angeles	78.0	82.4	4.4%
3	Calgary	81.4	85.7	4.3%
4	Buffalo	83.2	87.1	3.9%
5	NY Rangers	84.5	87.7	3.2%
6	Minnesota	85.2	87.7	2.5%
7	Chicago	82.1	83.9	1.8%
8	Ottawa	81.2	82.4	1.2%
9	Florida	82.4	83.1	0.7%
10	NY Islanders	81.9	82.4	0.5%
11	Montreal	82.5	82.6	0.1%
12	Philadelphia	83.2	83.2	0.0%
13	Phoenix	80.8	80.4	-0.4%
14	San Jose	86.0	85.4	-0.6%
15	Tampa Bay	82.1	81.2	-0.9%
16	Washington	80.5	79.6	-0.9%
17	Vancouver	82.6	81.6	-1.0%
18	Carolina	78.9	77.8	-1.1%
19	Pittsburgh	81.0	79.7	-1.3%
20	Nashville	85.4	84.0	-1.4%
21	New Jersey	82.8	81.2	-1.6%
22	Anaheim	83.1	81.1	-2.0%
23	Columbus	83.3	81.1	-2.2%
24	Colorado	81.4	78.8	-2.6%
25	Detroit	84.0	80.2	-3.8%
26	St. Louis	84.4	80.5	-3.9%
27	Atlanta	78.8	73.9	-4.9%
28	Toronto	78.2	73.0	-5.2%
29	Dallas	85.6	77.4	-8.2%
30	Edmonton	84.7	74.9	-9.8%
	Average	82.3	81.4

The most shocking thing about that table? The Leafs, rotten on the penalty kill last season, are even worse this time around, to the tune of a 5.2 per cent drop. Atlanta's another team that went from awful to more awful.

Boston and L.A., meanwhile, were two teams that struggled in this metric last season and have climbed the ranks. The Rangers and Minnesota remain two of the best killing teams, however.

If we combine the PP difference and the PK difference, it gives you a sense of how special teams, in total, are affecting teams:

RK	TEAM	PP Dif	PK Dif	Tot
1	Boston	6.2%	4.7%	10.9%
2	Chicago	6.9%	1.8%	8.7%
3	Calgary	2.1%	4.3%	6.4%
4	Buffalo	2.4%	3.9%	6.3%
5	Los Angeles	1.0%	4.4%	5.4%
6	Minnesota	2.8%	2.5%	5.3%
7	Philadelphia	5.1%	0.0%	5.1%
8	NY Islanders	3.4%	0.5%	3.9%
9	St. Louis	7.7%	-3.9%	3.8%
10	San Jose	4.2%	-0.6%	3.6%
11	Detroit	6.6%	-3.8%	2.8%
12	Washington	3.7%	-0.9%	2.8%
13	Anaheim	4.7%	-2.0%	2.7%
14	New Jersey	2.5%	-1.6%	0.9%
15	Ottawa	-0.4%	1.2%	0.8%
16	NY Rangers	-2.5%	3.2%	0.7%
17	Atlanta	4.7%	-4.9%	-0.2%
18	Colorado	2.0%	-2.6%	-0.6%
19	Vancouver	0.3%	-1.0%	-0.7%
20	Nashville	-1.5%	-1.4%	-2.9%
21	Toronto	2.1%	-5.2%	-3.1%
22	Florida	-4.1%	0.7%	-3.4%
23	Carolina	-3.2%	-1.1%	-4.3%
24	Tampa Bay	-3.6%	-0.9%	-4.5%
25	Pittsburgh	-3.2%	-1.3%	-4.5%
26	Phoenix	-5.7%	-0.4%	-6.1%
27	Columbus	-4.0%	-2.2%	-6.2%
28	Edmonton	1.6%	-9.8%	-8.2%
29	Montreal	-8.9%	0.1%	-8.8%
30	Dallas	-3.6%	-8.2%	-11.8%
	Average			0.2%

Boston's been incredible in a lot of ways this season, but we haven't heard enough about their climb on special teams. Ditto for Chicago, Calgary and Los Angeles.

On the other end of things, Dallas, Montreal, Edmonton and Columbus are having real difficulty living up to last season's numbers — and the Oilers and Blue Jackets didn't even make the postseason last year.

Ottawa's numbers, meanwhile, are dead even — but they're nowhere near where they were in the standings 12 months ago.

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Comments

1) Another conclusion. Based upon their top 10 standing(8th) in this list and their basement dwelling in the NHL, the NY Islanders must be down right abyssmal 5-5!

by Fauxrumors on Jan 13, 2009 7:46 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Yes, the Isles are the worst team in this (or probably any other) League 5-on-5. The Bruins have been flat-out sick (no “mono” joke intended) in just about every aspect of the game.

Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world

by J.P. on Jan 13, 2009 8:14 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

That the Jackets could have one of the biggest year-to-year dropoffs in power play after a 14.8% baseline year is mortifying.

Dear Hitch: you’re killing hockey, no matter how pretty your goalie’s numbers are.

Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world

by J.P. on Jan 13, 2009 8:12 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

System goalies?

Seems like any goalie they plug in gets shutouts, too bad they don’t win enough games otherwise.

Honk if you love Justice!
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by TheTick on Jan 13, 2009 9:23 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

There’s no question Mason’s numbers are inflated a bit playing there.

by James Mirtle on Jan 13, 2009 1:28 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The Rangers power play is especially brutal if you factor in short handed goals.

The Rangers have scored 27 times on 193 opportunities for a 14.0% success rate on the PP. However they’ve given up 13 shorthanded goals, meaning that their net goals for on the PP is actually only 14, for a PP success rate of around 7.0%.

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by Chemmy on Jan 13, 2009 9:35 AM CST reply actions 0 recs