Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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.

Friday, January 25, 2008

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

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

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.

Friday, January 11, 2008

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.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

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