The Wonderful Wacky Stat Pack

We're near the quarter point of this fine NHL season, so let's have a peek at some statistical odds and ends, trends, and other useless information you can impress your co-workers with.

While no coach would have much of a reason to put Jamal Mayers on the power-play, it's quite amazing that Mayers has played 532 NHL games and never had a single goal with the man advantage (63 career goals in that time). Not one! Even Donald Brashear, a man with far less offensive skill, has four power-play goals in his 'distinguished' career.

Are the refs asleep on Long Island? The New York Islanders have both the least amount of power-play opportunities for (67) and against (69). Meanwhile, the Ducks have the second most power-plays with 107 and most against with 111. So much for that laid-back West Coast mentality.

When the Detroit Red Wings won a Stanley Cup with Chris Osgood as their #1 goaltender many moons ago, many opined (including myself) that Osgood was, perhaps, the worst #1 goalie of a Cup winner, ever. This season, the Wings are rolling, despite having not getting good goaltending. With Osgood filling in for Dominik Hasek, who is injured again, the Wings have the 5th worst save percentage with 89.3%, but still have a 14-5-1 record. Go figure.

Bizarro World: Speaking of goaltending, the top three save percentages belong to Dan Ellis, Tim Thomas, and Martin Gerber ... and the bottom three belong to Miikka Kiprusoff, Alex Auld, and Dominik Hasek. Apart from Auld, I don't think many telephone psychics would have predicted these names to be where they are.

One reason the Rangers have struggled so far this season is the fact that their star players just can't score. Apart from chemistry issues, the Rangers have a league-worst 6.7% shooting percentage. You'd have to figure that number will increase naturally, and the Rangers will eventually capitalize on all of the chances they generate. The Rangers are 3rd overall in shots on goal, so it's not as if they aren't peppering opposing goalies with shots.

On the other side of the coin, one must figure the Flyers are due for a bit of a fall. As of today, they rank #1 in shooting percentage with 12.2%, but 4th worst with 469 shots on goal. In fact, the Flyers have one of the worst shot differentials in the entire league, which leaves one to believe that they are being outplayed quite often.

The Boston Bruins have been known to be a stingy franchise, so it's kind of fitting that they are the lone NHL club not to let in an empty net goal this season. The Kings and Blue Jackets are the most generous with 4 yawning cage goals apiece.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-19-2007 @ 5:31PM

desdemona said...

Meanwhile, the Ducks have the second most power-plays with 107 and most against with 111.

This isn't an argument that I wish to win, but by my calculations, the Leafs have 173 calls made against them.

11-19-2007 @ 5:35PM

Oops, I meant 139 penalties

11-19-2007 @ 5:39PM

Jes Golbez said...

Des,

# of penalties does not equal # of short-handed situations

The Leafs have been shorthanded (On the penalty kill) 108 compared to the Ducks' 111

11-19-2007 @ 6:02PM

Oh, I thought you were going for how many calls were made against them. For your purposes, shorthanded opportunities, wouldn't it be easier to count the minutes each team is shorthanded (which, other than going through the schedule and doing it myself - no thank you - I don't know how to obtain that info.) rather than counting the number of PP opportunities each team has given and taken?

11-20-2007 @ 11:15AM

baroose said...

Jes,

I contend that a disproportionate number of Jamal Mayers' goals are empty-netters, yet the NHL stats pages don't list ENG. Can your magical stat machine answer this question for me?