The Monday Morning Specials

by Dirk Hoag on Nov 12, 2007 11:59 AM EST

After a wild and wooly NHL weekend, there's much to cover, so I'll provide a number of items for you this morning.

1. I've updated the Penalty information over at the Google Spreadsheet, and in an effort to find the most useful and practical presentation, I've put the following columns out there: Player, Penalties Drawn, Penalties Committed, Penalty +/-, Position, and Team. This allows you to zero in on your favorite team, and also draw comparisons based on player position. My hunch is that defensemen will fare poorly here relative to forwards, due to the nature of their work; they're trying to prevent goals, and have to hook, hold or trip more often than the zoomers up front. For those not able to access the spreadsheet, I've included the best and worst players in this measure at the bottom of this post.

2. I took my oldest son (5) to his first NHL game on Saturday, as we watched the Predators defeat the Blue Jackets in a shootout. Ken Hitchcock went with an odd assortment of shooters, including Adam Foote, in lieu of scorers like Rick Nash and Sergei Fedorov. Apparently Hitch hasn't read that sending three right-handed shooters against a left-handed catcher like Chris Mason is a bad idea. All in all it was a fun evening, and my son had a great time. His twin sister gets to go to her first game this Saturday against St. Louis.

3. Just as I posted my memories of Vladimir Konstantinov last week, there are a number of other bloggers who shared stories about other retired greats as well, leading up to today's Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Head over to Greatest Hockey Legends for all the details.

4. Nashville fans have to be happy with how the Predators have responded since that 6-0 pasting at the hands of the
L.A. Kings on October 23rd. Since that game they are 6-1-1, and have started well in this crucial stretch of games within the Central Division that continues this week and next. In that time, team captain Jason Arnott has 3 goals and 4 assists, has a +4 rating. David Legwand has been even better (3-7-10, +6), and Chris Mason is looking sharp once again. And in the best news of all, stud defenseman Shea Weber is due to return from his knee injury sometime in the next week, perhaps as early as Saturday against the Blues.

5. I got a good portion of Saturday afternoon's Montreal/Ottawa match on Hockey Night in Canada, and it was probably the best game I've seen all season, not just in terms of how the teams were performing on the ice, but also given the energy in the crowd, which came through wonderfully on TV. There were plenty of Habs fans in the house, and each shot, hit, or slick move elicits raucous boos and cheers from the stands. It really feels like hockey season now...

**Top Penalty Plus/Minus Players as of November 11, 2007**
Player	Drawn	Committed	Pen +/-	Pos
PIT #87 CROSBY	20	7	13	C
WSH #8 OVECHKIN	14	3	11	L
NYR #19 GOMEZ	13	2	11	C
L.A #13 CAMMALLERI	11	0	11	L
L.A #11 KOPITAR	13	2	11	C
DET #13 DATSYUK	13	2	11	C
MTL #21 HIGGINS	11	3	8	L
EDM #83 HEMSKY	11	3	8	R
DET #40 ZETTERBERG	12	4	8	L
VAN #17 KESLER	12	5	7	C
S.J #12 MARLEAU	8	1	7	C
PHX #34 WINNIK	8	1	7	C
NYR #25 PRUCHA	9	2	7	R
CBJ #61 NASH	14	7	7	L
CAR #13 WHITNEY	7	0	7	L
BUF #29 POMINVILLE	9	2	7	R
BUF #19 CONNOLLY	9	2	7	C
ATL #13 KOZLOV	8	1	7	L
ANA #32 MOEN	9	2	7	L
STL #22 BOYES	8	2	6	R
S.J #9 MICHALEK	8	2	6	R
PHX #11 HANZAL	8	2	6	C
NSH #22 TOOTOO	8	2	6	R
N.J #16 ZUBRUS	7	1	6	C
MTL #73 RYDER	9	3	6	R
CAR #26 COLE	10	4	6	L
CAR #12 STAAL	10	4	6	C

**Worst Penalty Plus/Minus Players as of November 11, 2007**
Player	Drawn	Committed	Pen +/-	Pos
TOR #56 WOZNIEWSKI	0	11	-11	D
DAL #43 BOUCHER	0	10	-10	D
TOR #31 KUBINA	2	11	-9	D
PIT #55 GONCHAR	3	12	-9	D
PHI #22 KNUBLE	1	10	-9	R
OTT #25 NEIL	3	12	-9	R
NYR #51 TYUTIN	0	8	-8	D
EDM #24 STAIOS	0	8	-8	D
DET #3 LILJA	3	11	-8	D
CHI #7 SEABROOK	0	8	-8	D
CAR #6 HEDICAN	1	9	-8	D
S.J #10 EHRHOFF	1	8	-7	D
PHX #13 CARCILLO	3	10	-7	L
L.A #3 JOHNSON	1	8	-7	D
FLA #24 SALEI	2	9	-7	D
BOS #91 SAVARD	1	8	-7	C
ATL #28 HAVELID	0	7	-7	D
WSH #87 BRASHEAR	0	6	-6	L
WSH #4 ERSKINE	2	8	-6	D
WSH #2 POTHIER	2	8	-6	D
VAN #24 COOKE	0	6	-6	L
VAN #2 OHLUND	5	11	-6	D
NYR #27 MARA	1	7	-6	D
NSH #7 DE VRIES	2	8	-6	D
MIN #8 BURNS	3	9	-6	D
EDM #23 TARNSTROM	2	8	-6	D
DET #55 KRONVALL	1	7	-6	D
DET #33 DRAPER	5	11	-6	C
CGY #6 SARICH	1	7	-6	D
CGY #40 TANGUAY	2	8	-6	L
CGY #17 GODARD	0	6	-6	R
CBJ #25 CHIMERA	2	8	-6	L
ANA #25 PRONGER	4	10	-6	D

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Comments

Hey, id the discrepancy between the penalties drawn and the penalties taken due to the league's inconstancy in recording penalties drawn,funk in data collection or is it penalties that aren't drawn like delay of game.

by Mogen_david on Nov 12, 2007 6:51 PM EST reply actions

Are you referring to the fact that there's more Penalties Committed overall than Penalties Drawn? That's because some penalties don't have a particular player who draws them, i.e. when a defenseman sends the puck over the glass and gets called for Delay of Game. There's a pretty decent number of those.

by The Forechecker on Nov 12, 2007 6:56 PM EST reply actions

Yeah I was and I figured it was just things like delay of game.

I also assume that the the reason the reason the penalties committed are greater than the ts listed on the NHL stat site is that your picking up coincidental penalties.

I started a silly little analysis (cross tabs make silly easy). I summed by team and then was back of the envelope calculating what the scoreboard impact was with the PP% and PK%. I noticed that the PP Opp were fewer than drawn and the TS were greater. Next, I think I'm going to run the "potential impact" for each player based on the teams PK% and PP%.

by Mogen_david on Nov 12, 2007 9:12 PM EST reply actions

The first game for a five year old - there really aren't many better moments a Dad can have with his child.

Good for you, Forechecker

by Kevin on Nov 12, 2007 9:28 PM EST reply actions

Forgive me as I'm sure this has been brought up before, but could the penalties draw be expressed as a rate? I found myself wondering if Crosby has played more games than others or if his lead is purely a result of his remarkable skill.

by false_cause on Nov 12, 2007 10:59 PM EST reply actions

I have only been watching sporadically so far this season (it usually takes me until sometime in January/February to start watching my team on a regular basis) but I had no idea Mike Knuble was so down there on the penalty +/-!

GREAT blog! Please keep up the good work.

by Kevin McGuire on Nov 15, 2007 8:34 AM EST reply actions