Special Teams among NHL's Elite!

The Predators are among the best in the NHL at special teams play through the approximate midpoint of the season! Among Central Division teams, they are the best by a significant margin, Detroit is the only other above average team in the Central.

The best way to evaluate special teams is to combine the teams' power play percentage and penalty kill percentage. The league average, as you would expect, is going to be right around 100.0 (could be off a wee bit because of the way numbers are rounded off and not every team has the same number of power plays as shorthanded situations). Right now 15 teams are above 100.0 and 15 are below so my point is proven.

Through Saturday's action, the Predators were 22.0 percent on the power play and 81.8 percent on the penalty kill for a STR (special teams rating) of 103.8.

Notes on some of the other clubs:

THE GOOD:
Vancouver 111.3 (any wonder why they lead the Western Conference standings?)

Pittsburgh 106.1 (best PK in the league)

New Jersey 105.3 (and to further throw a monkey wrench into this, they lead the league in SHG scored -- 12 -- and allowed -- 9; they had a game last month where they scored 2 shorties to rally from a 3-0 deficit, took a 4-3 lead, and gave up a shortie with 5 seconds left to force OT before winning in a shootout--yikes!! It was a game against Ottawa, and accounted for 3 of the 9 total shorthanded goals scored in Senators games)

Boston 104.6 (interesting footnote--only team in the league that hasn't allowed a SHG)

Edmonton 104.1 (special teams have always been a Renney staple)

Nashville 103.8 (on the nights when the Preds aren't parading guys to the box, they are tough to beat)

New York Islanders 102.9 (but they are about as awful 5-on-5 as you can get; been outscored 101-75 at even strength so far)

Washington Capitals 102.2 (surprisingly it's their PK and not their PP that is responsible for this high rate; if they ever get things together on the PP they are beyond dangerous)

NY Rangers 102.1 (their awesome PK unit is probably killing the confidence of their PP unit in practice!)

Los Angeles 102.1 (they can't score, if it weren't for their PK the season would be a train wreck)

Montreal 101.5 (it's really a power failure with the man advantage, but the Habs are third in the league on the shutdown)

Winnipeg 101.4 (the Atlanta Thrashers weren't this good)

Buffalo 101.4 (middle of the pack in both areas)

Philadelphia 101.3 (bet you thought they were better than that!)

Detroit 100.6 (yes, the Wings are simply an average team on special teams)

THE BAD

Colorado 99.9 (too bad they take more penalties than they draw so their PPG differential is -4, though their SHG differential is +3)

Florida 99.6 (first place team, but leaders of the worst division in the NHL; however, they've drawn 35 more PP than they've allowed and the Panthers used to be notorious for doing the opposite--nice job teaching the boys some discipline, Kevin Dineen)

Anaheim 99.4 (with their RPG line plus Teemu, how is their PP that awful at 15.9 percent?)

Calgary 99.3 (only team in the league which has yet to score a SHG)

Minnesota 99.0 (while they've improved as a team, there's nothing overly "special" about special teams in their games)

Ottawa 97.8 (and their propensity for bad penalties makes this hurt even worse)

St. Louis 96.9 (their PK was best in the league but has slipped, and their PP has been awful all along)

Chicago 96.3 (but their STGD is +2 due to scoring 5 shorties and only allowing 1 so they are effective)

Dallas 96.2 (I know the Preds have made them look good, but I remain convinced that their record is a smoke and mirrors job)

Phoenix 96.3 (advice for Dave Tippett--next time you are offered a power play, decline it; 17 PPG in 42 games, are you serious?)

AND....THE UGLY

Toronto 95.1 (explosive PP but they can't stop anybody else's; the only team to average one PPG allowed per game)

San Jose 93.5 (huh??? you're reading that correctly, their PK has a serious leak; it's a good thing they are a disciplined team which has put themselves down a man the fewest times in the entire league)

Tampa Bay 93.3 (how is this even possible with that lineup? 13.8 percent on the PP with Stamkos and Lecavalier on their club???)

Columbus 90.5 and Carolina 91.3 (no surprise for these teams with a multitude of problems this season, arguably the worst 2 teams in the league right now)