Penalty Kill and other stuff

[Novacane]

Lost in this season is a great penalty kill. I don't quite know how they're doing it, but they're sitting at 86.7%. That's good for 4th in the league. Maybe it's great goaltending, maybe it's key blocks, maybe it's being good on faceoffs. But credit needs to be given to Steve Smith I think. Opponents shots have been kept down to 27.7 shots per game and that's kind of baffling to me with the guys we have on defense outside of the top pair.

Here's some stats from previous years:

Penalty Kill-
2014-2015: 86.7% (4th)
2013-2014: 81.7% (17th)
2012-2013: 77.6% (28th)
2011-2012: 80.6% (22nd)
2010-2011: 81.2% (20th)
2009-2010: 80.6% (19th)

Shots Against per Game-
2014-2015: 27.7 (6th)
2013-2014: 30.9 (21st)
2012-2013: 32.2 (26th)
2011-2012: 32.4 (30th)
2010-2011: 33.2 (30th)
2009-2010: 31.4 (22nd)

Goals Against per Game-
2014-2015: 2.57 (14th)
2013-2014: 2.76 (19th)
2012-2013: 3.31 (29th)
2011-2012: 2.89 (25th)
2010-2011: 2.85 (21st)
2009-2010: 3.06 (26th)

I thought this was worth mentioning. Discuss.

Click to read more...

 

[tarheelhockey]

Smith does deserve some credit. And we also have a decent group of PK'ers on the roster right now:

McClement - Dwyer
Faulk - Hainsey

Nash - Tlusty
Sekera - Gleason


^ Those have been our most common sets in terms of TOI. That's not half bad really. McClement was a savvy 4th-line and PK signing who's been asked to do a lot more since Jordan was injured. Dwyer and Nash have grown into their roles as PK'ers, and Tlusty isn't a bad option there. Gerbe's the next guy on the list, and then we've just added Jordan. Pretty solid group of PK forwards there. Now that the d-core is somewhat healthy, that's a decent set of penalty killers too (Gleason's skating ability notwithstanding). And of course, Ward.

I'm pretty happy with where we are on the PK, which in theory means we could have a competitive bottom 6 if we can just add some talent at the top of the lineup.

 

[nobuddy]

I think Peters deserves more credit than Smith as shot suppression tends to be due to systemic changes IMO.

As for the penalty kill, yeah, Smith deserves a good deal of credit there.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

At the start of the season, I would have laughed in your face if you told me our PK would be comfortably above 85%. Also worth mentioning is we're second only to Chicago in terms of PPG allowed with 15 over 42 games. We don't take many penalties, and we're killing the ones we do take with remarkable effectiveness. Special teams have never been our strong suit, but that is nothing short of elite. Of course, SA is pretty good too, and obviously goes hand-in-hand with the PK effectiveness.

Key takeaway: we're pretty good at bottling up everybody's offense. Unfortunately, that also includes our own.

 

[rocky7]

Well this is all good and all and important, but now they need to figure out a system to create some offense and score some ******* goals.

 

[Stickpucker]

Well this is all good and all and important, but now they need to figure out a system to create some offense and score some ******* goals.

Im with you Rocky & I like your idea to sign Olli Jokinen.

 

[Identity404]

If you looked at most of this teams stats, ignoring GF, I would think they would comfortably in a playoff spot, not bottom 3 in the league.

 

[HisIceness]

I have noticed our PK got a lot better when Maurice left the second time, probably hence why we scored so many SHG's last season.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

I have noticed our PK got a lot better when Maurice left the second time, probably hence why we scored so many SHG's last season.

the numbers say u r wrong

in fact they are in this very #thread

 

[HisIceness]

Numbers are satin.

 

[Anton Babchuk]

agreed

facts are tools of oppression