Stars News and Notes: A different look at special teams stats

Thursday, November 26, 2009-11:59:pm
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Statistically speaking, you can look at the Dallas Stars' special teams in more than one way. In the standard statistical view the power play is middle of the pack and the penalty kill is the in the bottom of third of the league. In another way of looking at the numbers, the power play is top ten and the penalty kill is middle of the pack.

Stars Note: Fortunus to AHL
The Stars sent Maxime Fortunus back to the Texas Stars of the AHL Thursday. Fortunus was recalled Tuesday because of some injury concerns on defense, but he ended up being a healthy scratch for Wednesday's game against St. Louis.

Take the power play, for example. Through Wednesday's games it ranked 17th in the league at 17.4 percent in the usual way of looking at power play performance stats. Look at it a different way - power play goals per game - and it ranked seventh in the league at 0.92 per game.

The penalty kill ranked 23rd in the league at 77.9 percent through Wednesday, but if you look at power play goals allowed per game it was at 16th in the league at 0.79 per game.

The reason for the better numbers in the less traditional way to looking at power play and penalty kill numbers? It's because the Stars draw more power plays per game than every team in the league except than Buffalo. Their percentage may not be as high as some teams, but they get more opportunities.

On the penalty killing side, only New Jersey, Nashville and Buffalo have shorthanded fewer times per game than the Stars. Their kill rate may not be as high as some teams, but they are getting helped by not being shorthanded a lot on most nights.

Keeping the penalties down and the opposition's shorthanded opportunities to a minimum has been a focus for the Stars this season.

"To me, it's being aware. You keep your feet moving. If you keep your feet moving then you don't tend to reach out and grab people. You're not reaching because you're not behind the play," said Stars head coach Marc Crawford. "We work a lot on our positioning, our foot work and our body position so we are not leaning. You'll see me stop a lot of drills when I see people leaning and not reading the play. Great defensive play should look like you are not doing much, you're just always in the way."

When it comes to drawing penalties, Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas said the team's style of play is a key reason.

"When you play an uptempo game and play fast, you have the other team chasing you and when you are chasing that's when you get into penalty trouble," said Robidas. ""I think one of the reasons [for the advantage in power plays] is we play that up tempo game and we play with speed. You force the other team to chase and reach."

Here's a look at how teams stack up as far as power play plays per game and times shorthanded per game, they are ranked by the difference between power plays drawn and times shorthanded.

Below that are rankings of teams based on power play goals per game and power play goals against per game.

Power plays/times shorthanded per game

RK Team GP PP PP/G TSH TSH/G Difference
1 Buffalo Sabres 21 101 4.8 74 3.5 1.3
2 Dallas Stars 24 113 4.7 86 3.6 1.1
3 New Jersey Devils 22 88 4.0 67 3.0 1.0
4 Detroit Red Wings 23 97 4.2 82 3.6 0.6
4 Nashville Predators 23 90 3.9 75 3.3 0.6
6 Pittsburgh Penguins 25 104 4.2 95 3.8 0.4
6 Minnesota Wild 23 99 4.3 89 3.9 0.4
6 Edmonton Oilers 25 104 4.2 88 3.8 0.4
9 San Jose Sharks 26 104 4.0 95 3.7 0.3
9 Los Angeles Kings 25 103 4.1 94 3.8 0.3
9 Tampa Bay Lightning 22 99 4.5 93 4.2 0.3
12 Toronto Maple Leafs 23 91 4.0 92 4.0 0.0
12 Calgary Flames 23 81 3.5 91 4.0 0.0
12 Florida Panthers 23 89 3.9 89 3.9 0.0
12 Vancouver Canucks 23 97 4.2 89 3.9 0.0
12 Atlanta Thrashers 21 85 4.0 84 4.0 0.0
12 Chicago Blackhawks 23 82 3.6 83 3.6 0.0
12 Washington Capitals 25 96 3.8 97 3.9 -0.1
19 Carolina Hurricanes 24 107 4.5 112 4.7 -0.2
19 New York Islanders 25 92 3.7 97 3.9 -0.2
21 Colorado Avalanche 25 98 3.9 105 4.2 -0.3
21 New York Rangers 24 94 3.9 104 4.2 -0.3
21 Boston Bruins 24 83 3.5 90 3.8 -0.3
24 Phoenix Coyotes 25 94 3.8 108 4.3 -0.5
24 Philadelphia Flyers 22 87 4.0 98 4.5 -0.5
24 St. Louis Blues 22 84 3.8 94 4.3 -0.5
27 Anaheim Ducks 23 90 3.9 107 4.7 -0.8
27 Columbus Blue Jackets 23 88 3.8 106 4.6 -0.8
29 Ottawa Senators 22 72 3.3 96 4.4 -1.1
30 Montreal Canadiens 25 76 3.0 108 4.3 -1.3

Power play goals per game

RK Team GP PPG PPG/GM
1 Philadelphia Flyers 22 23 1.04
2 Columbus Blue Jackets 23 23 1.00
2 San Jose Sharks 26 26 1.00
2 Vancouver Canucks 23 23 1.00
5 Detroit Red Wings 23 22 0.96
6 Atlanta Thrashers 21 20 0.95
7 Dallas Stars 24 22 0.92
8 Buffalo Sabres 21 19 0.90
9 New York Rangers 24 21 0.88
9 Washington Capitals 25 22 0.88
9 Los Angeles Kings 25 22 0.88
9 Edmonton Oilers 25 22 0.88
13 Anaheim Ducks 23 20 0.87
13 Toronto Maple Leafs 23 20 0.87
15 Tampa Bay Lightning 22 18 0.82
16 New Jersey Devils 22 18 0.82
17 Phoenix Coyotes 25 20 0.80
18 Minnesota Wild 23 18 0.78
18 Chicago Blackhawks 23 18 0.78
20 Nashville Predators 23 17 0.74
21 Colorado Avalanche 25 18 0.72
22 Calgary Flames 23 16 0.70
23 New York Islanders 25 17 0.68
24 Carolina Hurricanes 24 15 0.63
25 Pittsburgh Penguins 25 15 0.60
26 Ottawa Senators 22 13 0.59
27 St. Louis Blues 22 11 0.50
27 Boston Bruins 24 12 0.50
29 Montreal Canadiens 25 12 0.48
29 Florida Panthers 23 11 0.48

Power play goals against per game

RK Team GP PPGA PPGA/GM
1 Chicago Blackhawks 23 12 0.52
2 San Jose Sharks 26 14 0.54
3 Boston Bruins 24 14 0.58
4 New Jersey Devils 22 13 0.59
5 Buffalo Sabres 21 13 0.62
6 New York Rangers 24 15 0.63
7 Pittsburgh Penguins 25 16 0.64
7 Minnesota Wild 23 15 0.65
9 Nashville Predators 23 15 0.65
10 Atlanta Thrashers 21 14 0.67
11 New York Islanders 25 18 0.72
11 Edmonton Oilers 25 18 0.72
13 Ottawa Senators 22 16 0.73
14 St. Louis Blues 22 16 0.73
15 Phoenix Coyotes 25 19 0.76
16 Dallas Stars 24 19 0.79
17 Colorado Avalanche 25 21 0.84
17 Washington Capitals 25 21 0.84
19 Philadelphia Flyers 22 19 0.86
20 Calgary Flames 23 20 0.87
20 Vancouver Canucks 23 20 0.87
22 Montreal Canadiens 25 22 0.88
23 Detroit Red Wings 23 21 0.91
24 Los Angeles Kings 25 23 0.92
25 Tampa Bay Lightning 22 21 0.95
26 Columbus Blue Jackets 23 22 0.96
27 Carolina Hurricanes 24 24 1.00
27 Florida Panthers 23 23 1.00
29 Toronto Maple Leafs 23 24 1.04
30 Anaheim Ducks 23 26 1.13