Numbers Game: Aggregate PP-PK Rank

On Sunday night I had the privilege of watching the Detroit Red Wings take on the Avalanche at the Joe and when I say privilege, I really do mean it.  It was truly a thrill to watch the Wings offence completely dominate the Avs.  However, despite their offensive dominance, the Wings went on to lose the game 6-5 in a shootout thanks to a less than stellar performance by Osgood and a number of gaffs in the defensive end. 

Illegal Curve’s own Richard Pollock and I were talking about the game and we commented on how impressive Detroit’s offense looked particularly on the power play, yet, as has become a mounting concern as of late, they have struggled mightily in their own end.  And then we asked ourselves, do we have a new Numbers Game article here? Alas, we do.

In today’s Numbers Game, I compared each team’s power play and penalty kill rank to their overall point total. However, instead of analyzing the power play rank and penalty kill rank individually, I assigned each team an aggregate score by adding their power play rank to their penalty kill rank.  So, for example, the Detroit Red Wings have the top power play in the league, but their penalty kill efficiency is only 77.6%, which ranks 27^th in the league.  Their aggregate score is 28, which is the 14^th best score in the league.

The Sharks have the best aggregate score in the league (7) as they have the 2^nd best power play and 5^th best penalty kill efficiency.  They also have the 2^nd most points in the league.  However, the 2^nd place team in aggregate score is the Minnesota Wild who are 19^th in points. While the top 10 teams in aggregate score do include the likes of the Bruins (1^st), Capitals (tied 4^th), Devils (tied 4^th), and Flames (6^th), they also include the 24^th ranked Blues and the 27^th ranked Sens.

Though not a perfect correlation, teams that have a higher aggregate rank do tend to rank higher in points.  The average points rank for the teams in the top 10 in aggregate rank is 11.  The average points rank for teams who rank between 11^th – 20^th in aggregate score is 14, while teams that rank 21^st-30^th in aggregate score have an average points rank of 21.

Following up on this week’s Numbers Game, next week we will look at the aggregate scores for goals for/against in comparison to team point totals.  Stay tuned.