Over and over again, we have seen penalties hurt a team’s chance of winning games in the 2010-11 NHL Playoffs. These penalties have been turning into power-play goals with one flick of the wrist or one wind-up from the point. How important is it to be that guy that gets the all-important power-play goal to give his team a mental edge?
Looking purely at the numbers, the Canucks’ powerhouse offense is led by the Sedin twins. Currently with 17 games played, Henrik leads the NHL with 19 points (2G, 17A). His brother, Daniel, finds himself tied for sixth with five other players in the point race with 15 points (8G, 7A). Taking a deeper look, the power-play helps boost those numbers to what they are.
Henrik has amassed 10 power-play points (1G, 9A), while Daniel adds 9 power-play points (5G, 4A). Henrik’s power-play points add up for 53% of his total points, while Daniel has scored 60% of his points on the power-play.
How does this stack up to other leaders in the NHL?
Teammate Ryan Kesler, currently ranked fourth in points, has scored 17 points this current playoff (6G, 11A) with 8 of those coming with the man-advantage. This totals for 47% of his total points.
Shifting over to Tampa Bay, the Lightning have had two impact players putting up impressive numbers at the most important time of the year. Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier seem to have found their stride and battle amongst the three Canucks for the top six spots in points-scored.
St. Louis has scored 17 points (8G, 9A), 9 points coming on the power-play (3G, 6A). This adds up to be 53% of his total point production.
Lecavalier, currently third in points, has 17 points (6G, 11A). Just 6 points have come on the power-play (3G, 3A). 35% of his point-production comes on the power-play, clearly showing that he has been getting the job done at even strength.
Another point that sheds its light on this subject is the plus/minus category. Henrik and Daniel Sedin have combined for a dreadful minus-12 total, while St. Louis has posted an almost as equally bad minus-8. Lecavalier, who is not shy when it comes to back-checking, has posted a plus-6. Ryan Kesler has also posted an impressive plus-5 to show that he is not just a power-play specialist.
Does all of this mean that Lecavalier is a great player, Kesler is average and everyone else should be playing in the AHL? You would be a fool to think that when you don’t factor in that the power-play is a big part of the game. Power-plays are set in place for the star players to shine and take advantage of mistakes made by the opposing team. From Joe Malone to Wayne Gretzky to Sidney Crosby, players have been dynamic on the power-play all throughout hockey history. The power-play is what makes the difference between stars and superstars. Gretzky and Brett Hull were two players in the 1980s and 1990s that coaches never wanted to take the ice when their team took a penalty.
Gretzky is always the measuring stick when deciding if a player is dynamic or not. When Gretzky broke the most-goals-in-a-season record in 1981-82 (92 goals in 80 games), he scored 18 power-play goals, totaling just 20% of his total goal mark.
Brett Hull, one of the NHL’s most feared snipers in all of history, was known for his wicked shot in the slot. He holds the second-highest goal mark for a single season, scoring 86 goals in 1990-91. 29 of those goals came on the power-play, making 34% of his goal totals.
Daniel Sedin ended the 2010-11 season in the top-five for goals scored with 41 goals. Daniel had 18 of those come on the power-play, totaling a whopping- 44% of his goal total. His brother Henrik had just 19 goals on the season, but 8 of those came on the power-play. Henrik stayed close to his brother with 42% of his goals coming on the power-play. Lecavalier’s percentage is even higher than the twins, scoring 48% of his goals on the power-play (12PPG, 25G).
Something else to consider is that the NHL is cracking down on penalties a lot more than they did in Gretzky’s and Hull’s days. So while these percentages do hold some weight, it is hard to tell how much of it matters when compared to former NHL superstars. New rules and even stricter officials have changed the game into something that Gretzky and Hull never saw.
You cannot blame players for getting a large chunk of their points with the man-advantage. If they can get goals after their opposition takes a penalty, that means that they are doing something correctly.
One minor complaint is that some players may not be as dynamic when they are not on the power-play. The Sedin twins do not have impressive plus/minus numbers. If they cannot stop opposing teams from scoring while they are on the rink, their power-play goals may count for nothing. Often times the Sedins are getting hemmed in their zone and do not even control the puck during an entire shift. A dynamic player makes things happen no matter what the situation is on the ice.
St. Louis and teammate Steven Stamkos (minus-4 in the playoffs) do control the puck, but their quality of chances is not as impressive without the man-advantage. St. Louis has been seen taking bad-angle shots that Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas is going to stop every time.
Capitalizing on the power-play is extremely important in today’s NHL, but it is just as important to keep the puck out of your net.
Hull and Gretzky kept the goal counts down for their teams. Their collective-career plus/minus is through the roof.
With a few tweaks to their games, maybe the same will be said about these current NHL stars in a few years. For the time being, though, things need to change.
Keywords: ahl, brett hull, daniel sedin, henrik sedin, hockey, joe malone, martin st louis, nhl, playoffs, ryan kesler, sidney crosby, steven stamkos, tim thomas, vancouver canucks, vincent lecavalier, wayne gretzky
