LOGIN | REGISTER | RSS FEEDS

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Early Trends

by Paul on 02/15/13 at 12:00 PM ET
Comments (0)

from John Kreiser of NHL.com,

Power surge: The shortened training camps appear to have affected some teams much more than others when it comes to the power play. The first-quarter League average of 18.8 percent would be the best since 2008-09 (18.9 percent), and a noticeable jump from last season's 17.3 percent. But not everyone is sharing in the fun: Five teams were converting on more than 25 percent of their chances, and eight were beating Nashville's League-leading 21.6 percent last season. However, three teams were below 10 percent and four trailed last season's 30th-place showing of 13.5 percent by Dallas.

Though they were 8-1-2 in the first quarter, the Boston Bruins were just 4-for-43 with the extra man -- and 0-for-23 at TD Garden. Detroit, which went 9-for-38 (23.7 percent) at home, is 0-for-23 on the road.

OK on the PK: The Bruins' power play struggled in the first quarter, but their penalty-killers were superb. Boston led the NHL in penalty-killing at 93.5 percent, allowing only three power-play goals on 46 opposition attempts. Chicago's 10-0-3 start owes plenty to its penalty-killing unit, which gave up just four goals in 47 tries (91.5 percent).

Anaheim won nine of its 12 games in the first quarter despite having the NHL's 29th-ranked penalty-killing unit. The Ducks' 69.6 percent success rate (14 goals allowed on 46 opposition attempts) was worse than everyone except the Winnipeg Jets (67.5 percent).

Working overtime: In all, 47 games in the first quarter went past regulation -- 21 were decided in overtime and 26 in a shootout. Western Conference teams were far more likely to go past regulation than their counterparts in the East -- 31 of the 47 overtime/shootout games were in the West, including 19 of the 26 tiebreakers.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Comments

Be the first to comment.

Add a Comment

Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.

Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.

Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.

Smileys

<b>

<i>

<u>

quote

code

@

<a>

Close Tags

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Most Recent Blog Posts

About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

Email Paul anytime at pk@kuklaskorner.com