10 Game Chunks - A Look at Standings and Stats

One of the big problems with looking at standings and stats is that thanks to the NHL scheduling system, some teams may have played 5 or more games than others, making a direct comparison difficult.

This season, as each team hits its a 10 game mark, I'm grabbing their record and other vital stats. Not only does this let you get a good look at how teams were at the same point in their season, you can also compare similar stretches in their respective schedules.

Most of the stats are self-explanatory. I used Excel to color code the ranges as well, with good being green and not-so-good being red, orange and yellow everything in between. One somewhat made up stat is Special Teams Index (STI), which basically subtracts SHG against from PPG for, then divided by PP opportunities (PP Opp), and adds that % to the PK, which is SHG for subtracted from PPG against, divided by Times Short (TS). The result shows how well a team's special team unit has performed.

In the case of Chicago and Pittsburgh through games 1-10, they scored more SHG than they allowed PPG against, so their PK% was over 100% in the STI formula. The actual percentages are what are displayed in the respective PP% and PK% columns.

The Date (for games 1-10) is the date the team played their 10th game. In subequent sheets, it is replaced by how many days it took to play the next 10 games.

In the case of the 1st 10 games, the Penguins played their 10th game on October 22, while the Islanders didn't get their 10th game until November 3.

Here is a look at the standings for the 1st 10 games:

And a look at the full stats:

The Second 10

The Penguins had a leisurely 28 days to complete games 11-20, while the Senators crammed the same games into a 20 day span. The league average was 23.2 days. The Islanders' 2-6-2 offering came during a putrid 22 days. Our 9.7% PP conversion rate wasn't even worst in the league, as we beat out Carolina (3 of 39 7.7%), New Jersey (4 of 42 9.5%) and Phoenix (2 of 28 7.1%). Our STI was second worst, with our 81.9% beating only Chicago's 75.8%. Chicago's PK crashed with 11 goals scored on 24 times short (54.2%).

The records for games 11-20 and through 20

The stats for the 2nd 10 games:

And the stats through 20 games:

The 3rd 10

Carolina will hit game # 30 on Wednesday night. The Islanders, Rangers and Sharks are the last to get there on December 17. So far, in their third 10, the Isles are 3-0-1, trailing the Penguins (5-1-1), Blues (4-1-1), Red Wings (4-0-0) and a handful of other teams with 8 points (in 5 games or more). On the futility side, there are the Devils and Capitals (1-4-0) and the Ducks (1-3-1).