Goals break down East vs West

The total goals scored in the NHL, since the beginning the season, come up to 4144 in 1506 games, for an average of 2.75. All teams have played an average of 50 games each, and have scored 138 goals each. Among those 4144 goals scored this season, 1173 have come on the power play, which counts for 28.3 % of the goal scoring. 155 have be scored while a team was minus one man, it counts for 13.2 %. Only a 1180 goals have been scored in the opening period, for 28.5% . The second and third periods have combined for 70.1 % of the scoring so far this season. Let’s take a look at the league and the conference totals.

	NHL	%
Games Played	1506
Goals	4144
Power play	1173	28.3
Short Handed	155	13.2
First period	1180	28.5
Second Period	1458	35.2
Third Period	1448	34.9
OT	58	1.4
Empty Net	136	3.3
Penalty Shots	12
Hat tricks	46

	East	%		West	%
Games Played	749			757
Goals	2098			2046
Power play	602	29		571	28
Short Handed	79	5		76	4
First period	594	28		586	29
Second Period	740	35		718	35
Third Period	730	35		718	35
OT	34	2		24	1
Empty Net	65	3		71	3
Penalty Shots	7			5
Hat tricks	26			21

In my next entry, I will compare the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.

Final Standings Projections

Eastern Conference	Western Conference
1. Ottawa 108	1. Detroit 125
2. Philadelphia 101	2. San Jose 102
3. Carolina 82	3. Minnesota 97
4.Montreal 100	4.Calgary 95
5. New Jersey 99	5.Dallas 94
6. Pittsburgh 97	6.Vancouver 93 (more wins)
7. Boston 92	7. Anaheim 93
8. Islanders 89	8. Colorado 92
-------------------------------------------	------------------------------------------
9. Rangers 87	9. Phoenix 90 (more wins)
10.Washington 84	10.Nashville 90 (more wins)
11. Buffalo 82	11. Colombus 90
12. Atlanta 79 (more wins)	12. St-Louis 87
13. Florida 79	13.Chicago 82
14. Toronto 77	14. Edmonton 80
15.Tampa Bay 74	15.Los Angeles 68

Face-offs and scoring first

It’s a well known fact, that when you have a good average on the face offs, your chances at scoring the all important first goal of a game, that aspect will come more and more into play as we approach the final stretch. So here are the top ten face off and scoring first teams records.

Face-offs

Rank	Team	Face-offs won	%
1	Detroit	1503/2762	54.4 %
2	Rangers	1397/2652	52.7 %
3	Colombus	1468/2785	52.7 %
4	San José	1289/2451	52.6 %
5	Chicago	1348/2589	52.1 %
6	Islanders	1399/2723	51.4 %
7	St-Louis	1344/2630	51.1 %
8	Atlanta	1489/2916	51.1 %
9	Ottawa	1383/2711	51 %
10	Washington	1405/2762	50.9 %

Scoring First

Rank	Team	Scored first	Record
1	Detroit	35/49	30-3-2
2	Ottawa	30/48	25-3-2
3	Minnesota	25/48	22-2-1
4	Vancouver	26/49	21-5-0
5	Nashville	25/48	20-3-2
6	Montreal	28/47	20-2-6
7	San Jose	30/47	19-7-4
8	Rangers	30/49	19-7-4
9	Philadelphia	26/46	19-4-3
10	Colorado	22/48	18-2-2

The All-star break will permit me to put together the latest possible, final standings projections, and do the same for the trade deadline. Stay tuned.

Remember the 24% roll back ?

During the negociations for the present CBA, in December 2004, the players put an offer to the owners, in order to kick start something and get things going. Bob Goodenow put a 24 % roll back on the players salaries in the first year after the lock-out. It’s pretty certain now, that the players got that back in the second year, especially guys like Brière, Ovechkin, Gomez, Drury and many others that signed contracts after the 2005-06. What a joke. When parts of the current CBA where made public in the days following the end of the lock-out, everyone in the media, the pundits, all seemed pretty convinced that the players took a major beating in this. Here we are in year three of the cap world, it’s clear now and it will get more so from now until the end of this CBA, that the owners once again screwed up. The Brière, Gomez, Richards, Drury and now Ovechkin deals, show the owners have not learned a thing.

The main objectif of bringing in a cap system, is to keep salaries at a reasonable range, but this has not happened because of the way the present cap is structured. It’s not a hard cap, it’s more a soft cap. A hard cap of 42 million in the first three years of the CBA would of curbed the growth of salaries. At this moment, on average, teams are spending more than they did in the year before the work stoppage. In that season, the average was around 44,5 million per team, for this season, it is around 46.5 million, and this in a cap system, the other had not cap, so the cap is not working like it should. The amount I mentioned in the cap system, is the average amount of salary for the length of his contract, and not the actual paid out amount. In time, the small market teams that this CBA was suppose to help out, will feel the squeeze before the life of this agreement is over.

A whole season lost for nothing.

Top 5's in ....

As of January 6th

Powerplay

1. Montreal 24.2%
2. Detroit 23.1%
3. Philadelphia 22.4%
4. Los Angeles 20.5%
5. Minnesota 20.4%

Penalty Kill

1. Dallas 87.8%
2. San Jose 87 %
3. Colombus 86.7 %
4. St-Louis 86.5 %
5. Detroit 86.3 %

Goals For

1. Ottawa 147
2. Detroit 144
3. Carolina 133
4. Calgary 128
5. Montreal 124

Goals Against

1. Detroit 86
2. San Jose 89
3. Vancouver 89
4. New Jersey 96
5. Colombus 97

Goals for 5 vs 5

1. Ottawa 98
2. Detroit 89
3. Colorado 85
4. Toronto 84
5. Calgary 83