65 preseason games played outside of Puerto Rico (can’t find a boxscore on that one)
381 total goals (5.86 per game)174 power play goals (45.7%)
16 shorthanded goals (4.2%)
184 even strength goals (48.3%)
7 empty-net goals (1.8%)
Of course it is only preseason, but you have to be a real special-teams enthusiast to get excited when half of NHL scoring happens on special teams. Remember when 5-on-5 play mattered quite a bit? I wonder which coach will be first to have a true ‘PP specialist’, one who sits on the bench only to play during PP time. These percentage numbers suggest it wouldn’t be that bad an idea.
For reference, last year power play goals made up a little more than 1/3 of overall scoring, both in the regular season and playoffs. I don't have any stats on last year's preseason, though.
So, is that going to be similar to the DH in baseball?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteThose are some interesting stats. I wonder how they will compare to the regular season ones at the end of the year and if add them together, if there is any change in the teams' standings.
Just quickly looking at the first 20 box scores for 2005-2006:
ReplyDelete60/117 or 52% (plus or minus 8%) PP or SH (ignores EN), so there are more calls in the pre-season than the regular season (makes sense...).
With the demise of the 4th line enforcer, the 4th line PP specialist is born, arise Robimus Prime!
ReplyDelete(But seriously MacT is not nearly forward thinking enough to try it, he's just starting to warm to the idea of 5 forwards on the 5-on-3.)
I looked at this a few days back, and the scoring was ever more lop-sided (60% of scoring was on the PP). It looks like it might be evening out as the preseason matures. Like you, I was wondering what the PP/ES scoring split was like in the previous preseason, just for a point of comparison.
ReplyDeleteHow much do I love that you used a picture of a Pokemon.
ReplyDelete