BoC finds room for improvement: 5-on-5 hockey

It's still very early in the season, but one thing that seems to be common among all the slow-starting BoC teams is that for all three teams, 5-on-5 results have plenty of room for improvement. If we look purely at 5-on-5 results (no 4-on-4 or pulled goalie situations), here's how the teams are producing thus far:

• The San Jose Sharks in 8 games have scored 10 goals-for and allowed 12 goals-against. That is, they are allowing 1.2 goals for every one they are scoring.
• The Anaheim Ducks in 10 games have scored 8 goals-for and allowed 13 goals-against. They are allowing 1.6 goals for every one they are scoring.
• The Los Angeles Kings in 9 games have scored 11 goals-for and allowed 23 goals-against. They are allowing 2.1 goals for every one they are scoring.
• All three teams together in 27 games have scored 29 goals-for and allowed 48 goals-against. They are allowing 1.7 goals for every one that they are scoring.

Of course there's plenty of reasons and excuses available ("It's early" is still a valid explanation), but it is worth noting that 5-on-5 hockey is a big reason why none of the three clubs has seemed to meet early expectations. If you neglect the 5-on-5 issues above, the teams in non-5-on-5 situations all have positive goal differentials (SJ is a +3 while ANA and LA are +2).

Outscoring opponents at even-strength isn't a real necessity to make the playoffs; certainly a lot can be made up with special teams. But come postseason, generally the level of opposition goes up and often special teams production decreases. The Ducks last spring, for example, primarily killed in the playoffs not because of their power play, but rather because they dominated 5-on-5 hockey. For all three teams, this looks so far to be one key area to work on; an effective 5-on-5 game makes success look easy.

Just for fun, here's the top 15 and the bottom 15 BoC performers at even-strength-goal-differential-per-60-minutes. Unlike the above discussion, these tables include more than just 5-on-5 production, but rather anything labeled as "even-strength". That means that in terms of ice time and results, these include 4-on-4 and empty-net situations (basically, any time icing can be called on both teams). Note that quality of opposition is not considered here; that may help explain why some players fall on either list.

The top 15:

Player	Team	Pos	GP	ES Min.	G–A–Pts	Plus–Minus–Diff	Diff/hr.
Petteri Wirtanen	ANA	C	1	2.87	1 – 0 – 1	+1 – -0 – +1	+20.93
Douglas Murray	SJS	D	6	57.00	0 – 2 – 2	+4 – -1 – +3	+3.16
Scott Thornton	LAK	W	6	46.00	1 – 0 – 1	+2 – -0 – +2	+2.61
Brad May	ANA	W	8	49.50	0 – 0 – 0	+2 – -0 – +2	+2.42
George Parros	ANA	W	9	33.88	0 – 1 – 1	+1 – -0 – +1	+1.77
Joe Thornton	SJS	C	8	106.30	2 – 4 – 6	+7 – -4 – +3	+1.69
Kent Huskins	ANA	D	10	152.50	1 – 3 – 4	+7 – -3 – +4	+1.57
Jaroslav Modry	LAK	D	9	126.82	0 – 0 – 0	+7 – -4 – +3	+1.42
Joe Dipenta	ANA	D	9	86.10	0 – 3 – 3	+3 – -1 – +2	+1.39
Corey Perry	ANA	W	10	132.88	3 – 1 – 4	+7 – -4 – +3	+1.35
Ryane Clowe	SJS	W	8	89.22	1 – 2 – 3	+4 – -2 – +2	+1.35
Milan Michalek	SJS	W	8	92.05	2 – 1 – 3	+4 – -2 – +2	+1.30
Ladislav Nagy	LAK	W	7	60.72	0 – 2 – 2	+2 – -1 – +1	+0.99
Ryan Getzlaf	ANA	C	10	133.53	2 – 5 – 7	+8 – -6 – +2	+0.90
Jonathan Cheechoo	SJS	W	8	94.13	2 – 1 – 3	+5 – -4 – +1	+0.64

The bottom 15:

Player	Team	Pos	GP	ES Min.	G–A–Pts	Plus–Minus–Diff	Diff/hr.
Raitis Ivanans	LAK	W	8	52.33	0 – 1 – 1	+1 – -3 – -2	-2.29
Rob Davison	SJS	D	3	22.03	0 – 0 – 0	+0 – -1 – -1	-2.72
Brady Murray	LAK	W	4	39.48	1 – 0 – 1	+1 – -3 – -2	-3.04
Andrew Miller	ANA	W	4	39.42	1 – 0 – 1	+1 – -3 – -2	-3.04
Rob Blake	LAK	D	9	116.02	0 – 0 – 0	+4 – -10 – -6	-3.10
Patrick Rissmiller	SJS	W	7	57.85	0 – 0 – 0	+0 – -3 – -3	-3.11
Lubomir Visnovsky	LAK	D	9	152.50	0 – 1 – 1	+6 – -13 – -7	-3.11
Patrick O’Sullivan	LAK	W	9	91.33	1 – 1 – 2	+4 – -9 – -5	-3.28
Michal Handzus	LAK	C	9	97.90	0 – 1 – 1	+4 – -10 – -6	-3.68
Brad Stuart	LAK	D	9	122.45	0 – 0 – 0	+1 – -9 – -8	-3.92
Marcel Goc	SJS	C	7	56.67	0 – 0 – 0	+0 – -4 – -4	-4.24
John Zeiler	LAK	W	7	56.17	0 – 0 – 0	+0 – -4 – -4	-4.27
Curtis Brown	SJS	C	3	20.57	0 – 0 – 0	+0 – -2 – -2	-5.83
Maxim Kondratiev	ANA	D	2	9.42	0 – 0 – 0	+0 – -1 – -1	-6.37
Jason King	ANA	W	2	21.38	0 – 0 – 0	+0 – -3 – -3	-8.42