Every week I love this. I get to find 5 odd facts and put them all together. Some are more crazy than others so time to get right down to it and see what happened from the last week that is definitely miles from the norm.
So a suddenly hot team on the Power Play can vault up the rankings like a speeding bullet. Enter your 2009-10 New Jersey Devils who are now ranked 5th on the man advantage at 22%. The last time the Devils were even this close to the top was the 2000 season where they were ranked 3rd at the end of the year. Apparently Patrik Elias coming back really has sparked this thing or could it be Mr. Bergfors that potential Calder candidate? No one is really sure. One thing is for sure…its clicking!!!
What do the Blues, Canes and Pens all have in common? Formerly very good Power Plays that have fallen on very rough times. The Blues are 30th, the Pens 29th and the Canes are 28th. I really never could have saw this coming and the Pens get there this week after a brutal 1 for 19 stretch. The Canes have had a bad season turn even more south with injuries and the Blues well…no one is really sure what is wrong with a PP that looked lights out this season. But to combine all 3 teams being this bad at the same time is just insanely incredible in the bad sense.
Remember back to last year when Philly went almost the whole year without giving up a shorthanded goal and then gave up one in the last game of the regular season. Well the only team to have any hope at going throughout the entire season without giving up the shortie this year is none other than the Detroit Red Wings. That is right….every other team in the NHL has given up at least one. Congrats to the Sharks and Wild for giving up 5 by the way. Thankfully San Jose can score a ton and well Minnesota….yes we are not going there.
Dallas has 10 OTL and Tampa has 9 OTL’s….just meaning they have either lost in OT or the SO that many times. They are both on pace for an insane 26 and 25 OTL’s respectively. No one has even topped 20. I am not saying its going to happen but with the way these teams play…it is indeed very possible for the two of them to top the 20 mark. Florida the record holder only has 7 on the season thanks to a better shootout record this year.
Lastly on the docket today I bring you the number 2. For the first time in nearly 40 years, the New York Rangers did something twice that has rarely been duplicated….not since the St. Louis Blues of 1970. They scored at least twice on the Power Play and were burned once shorthanded. When this happens one game…its like okay whatever. When it happens two games in a row…you have to say wow at least a little.
That is enough humiliation and oddity for now….next week we get into some Christmas hockey oddities that will blow your mind. See you then.
