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Power Play Plus/Minus: Which teams have the best and worst PP units so far? (October 31)

thrashersppbestsofar

James O’Brien

In case you weren’t following PHT in its first month, I introduced some new special teams stats because I’m not satisfied with the common percentage-based rankings for power plays and penalty kill units.

If you want a quick explanation for why I prefer totals over percentages for special teams stats, consider these facts.

1. Some teams draw more penalties than others, so they might convert less often but score more PP goals overall. Really, isn’t all about how many goals you score, not how “efficient” your power play is?

2. Power play percentage doesn’t factor shorthanded goals allowed, so reckless units are rewarded. Let’s not forget how devastating it can be to allow a goal when you’re on the PP.

Those two facts drove me to create* a few simple stats to provide what I think is a “more complete” picture of which special teams units are the best in the NHL.

First, let’s take a look at the league’s best teams in Power Play Plus/Minus.

Power Play Plus Minus is a very simple stat: simply take power-play goals scored and subtract shorthanded goals allowed. In the spreadsheet below, I also provided games played (since some teams will naturally get more opportunities with more games), power play opportunities, their traditional percentage and then the stats that matter: power-play goals scored, shorthanded goals allowed and power play plus minus. Let’s take a look.

powerplay plus minus oct 31

James O’Brien

(click to enlarge)

Now, some observations regarding these rankings.


  • Atlanta earns the top spot by having one of the highest PPG totals (13) without giving up a single shorty. Notice that their percentage is a good but not amazing at 23.2.
  • San Jose leads the league in total PP goals (14), but they must be running a high-risk, high-reward system because they’ve already allowed three shorthanded goals.
  • Vancouver‘s PP is deceptively efficient. Although they only scored eight goals, they did so with only 35 opportunities and didn’t allow a SHG yet. Boston, St. Louis, NY Rangers and Ottawa are achieving similarly modest results without shooting themselves in the foot.
  • Colorado owns what might be the sloppiest PP. Their nine goals is solid, but they’ve allowed four shorthanded tallies. Is this a matter of how much a bad game or two can sway such a small sample or is something systematically wrong?
  • Florida, Phoenix and New Jersey share the worst ratios in the league (three PP goals vs. one SHG allowed), but the Devils probably rank as the worst overall because they played 12 games (Phoenix played 10 and Florida only played nine).

So, don’t get me wrong, percentage stats aren’t totally useless, I just think this plus/minus system is a much better way to assess a team’s PP. Later tonight, I’ll provide similar stats for penalty kill units and then wrap it all up with overall special teams plus/minus.

* - At least, I think I created these stats. If you did something like this before I did, let me know in the comments (and provide a link, if you don’t mind).