from Shaunvir Sidhu of Bloomberg Sports,

In the NHL, clutch is more difficult to measure because of the amount of players (4-lines) that can impact a close game in the third period. While there has been work done to show save percentages don’t consistently spike when the game is on the line, there hasn’t been much done to show whether or not clutch exists at the team level. I wanted to figure out if there were teams who could be consistently clutch—for the purposes of this study I defined this as a team who could consistently win games decided by 1 goal.

The results were interesting. Since the shootout era, no team has consistently won close games. Close-game outcomes appear random and unaffected by normal measures of team-strength. Furthermore, and perhaps more interesting for GM’s/Coaches: Stanley Cup champions avoid this randomness. They play 7% fewer close games than other teams, and this is independent of their goal differential. If you want to win a Stanley Cup, the chances of that happening increase if you avoid playing close games.

Let’s get into the data.

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