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CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Monday, October 10, 2005

Some Early Returns

While some of you are digesting turkey, I'm digesting some early returns from the first weekend of this new obstruction-free, offense-oriented NHL season:

  • Through this first weekend of the season, teams have combined to score 251 goals - an average of 3.14 goals per team per game. The average over the 2003/2004 regular season was 2.57 goals per team per game. So far, teams are scoring 0.57 goals per game more than last season - a 22% increase.
  • The crackdown on obstruction has resulted in an average of 7.84 penalties called against each team per game. The average over the 2003/2004 regular season was 5.75.
  • These penalties have produced an average of 6.84 powerplay opportunities per team per game, and have resulted in 1.19 powerplay goals per team per game. This means that a little more than one-third of the goals scored so far have come from the powerplay. In 2003/2004, teams averaged 4.24 powerplay opportunities and 0.70 powerplay goals per game; under 30% of the goals scored came from the powerplay.
The objective of the NHL's "higher standard of officiating" was to "increase the number and quality scoring chances per game". One weekend in and it seems like they are on their way to achieving it.

(Stats from NHL.com)
posted by J.J. Guerrero, 12:27 PM

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