Around the NHL - 27 Oct

Posted by admin on 27th, 2008

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30 Teams Play in 1 day - the stats

Ross McKeon of Yahoo! Sports has a fantastic article today in which he breaks down October 26, the 2nd day in NHL history were all 30 teams played in the same day. Accoring to McKeon, on October 26…

The home team earned two points in nine games, the visitors snatched a pair of points in six. Five of the 15 games needed more than 60 minutes to decide as two ended in sudden death and three required a shootout.
Philadelphia’s Jeff Carter at 3:44 and Washington’s Alexander Semin at 2:17, both even-strength goals, accounted for the winners in sudden death.
Fredrik Sjostrom of the Rangers, Ryan Smyth of the Avalanche and Marian Hossa of the Red Wings scored the deciding goals in shootouts. Henrik Lundqvist, Peter Budaj and Ty Conklin were the winning goalies. In all, shooters went 9-for-24 in the shootouts.
A total of 96 goals were scored in regulation and overtime of the 15 games. Three goals came short-handed (Anaheim’s Travis Moen, Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond and Sean Bergenheim of the Islanders) and one filled an empty net (Jarome Iginla).
Ten of the 15 games were decided by one goal. Four goals was the largest margin of victory (St. Louis 4-0 over Florida).
The power play was very good across the board. Teams combined to covert 30 of 127 chances for 23.6 percent, well above the league average. Vancouver cashed in most, going 4-for-6. The Islanders had the most power-play chances, but went just 1-for-8.
A total of 460 penalty minutes were assessed of which 120 minutes accounted for the 12 fights. New Jersey and Philadelphia, division rivals meeting for the second time in as many days, featured the most bouts with four. The Devils and Flyers accrued the most combined minutes (80) while the Blue Jackets-Wild and Sabres-Avalanche combined for the least (12 each game).
There were a combined 984 shots on goal during regulation and overtime. Carolina’s Cam Ward faced the most. He stopped 57 of the New York Islanders’ franchise-record 60. Florida managed the fewest, only 17 on the road in St. Louis. Five teams replaced their starting goalies because of either injury or ineffectiveness including Montreal, Los Angeles, Columbus, St. Louis and the New York Islanders. Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec led the world with 13 shots (three others were judged to be missed shots). Bill Guerin of the Islanders was in double figures, too, with 10 shots.
There were a grand total of 872 faceoffs. Detroit and Chicago visited the circle the most (82) while San Jose and Tampa combined for the least draws (46). Boston’s Marc Savard (14-4), Vancouver’s Ryan Kessler (16-6), Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour (15-5) and Washington’s Boyd Gordon (13-4) had strong nights on faceoffs while Phoenix’s Olli Jokinen (4-13), Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf (4-15) and Edmonton’s Shawn Horcoff (9-18) struggled.
Teams extended winning streaks (Colorado to five in a row, Detroit to four, Anaheim and Calgary to three and Philadelphia to two) and extended losing streaks (Islanders to three in a row) and had streaks snapped (Montreal had won five in a row, Pittsburgh had won two straight and Washington had lost three in a row).
The 15 games drew nine capacity crowds. The United Center in Chicago housed the biggest showing, a franchise-record 22,690 to see the 698th all-time meeting between the rival Red Wings and Blackhawks. The smallest crowd was an announced 11,219 gathering at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island for the Hurricanes and Islanders. A total of 267,729 attended the 15 games for an average of 17,849 per contest.
The biggest minute-muncher on Saturday was Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom with 32:01 of ice time. Buffalo’s young defenseman Andrej Sekera was the only other skater in the league to log more than 30 minutes (30:44). Philadelphia’s Riley Cote (1:34) and New Jersey’s Mike Rupp (1:44) saw the least amount of ice time.
Of miscellaneous note, Calgary traveled the most miles (1,600 from Nashville to Glendale, Ariz.) while New Jersey traveled the least (less than 100 miles to Philly). … The 30 bench bosses combined for more than 180 seasons of NHL head coaching experience. … Tampa Bay’s Gary Roberts (42 years, five months, two days) was the oldest player performing and Atlanta’s Zach Bogosian (18 years, three months, 10 days) was the youngest.

Injury Updates:

Islanders G DiPietro questionable Vs Rangers
New York Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro will see a doctor on Monday for an undisclosed injury and is questionable to play that night against the New York Rangers.
Red Wings LW Franzen out 3-4 weeks
Red Wings forward Johan Franzen will be out for three to four weeks because of a sprained left knee, the team said Sunday.
Blues G Bishop injured Vs Panthers
St. Louis Blues goaltender Ben Bishop left Saturday’s 4-0 win over the Florida Panthers in the third period with a lower body injury and did not return. Bishop made 12 saves without yielding a goal before being replaced by Marek Schwarz, who was recalled from Peoria of the American Hockey League earlier in the day.
Blue Jackets G Leclaire suffers ankle injury
Leclaire left Saturday’s game 5:24 into the second period with an ankle injury, the Associated Press reports.
Joni Pitkanen: Leg Injury
Pitkanen sustained a leg injury late in the second period of Saturday’s
game against the Islanders, and did not return to action.
Maple Leafs Jeff Finger back in action
Finger (foot) made his regular-season debut with the Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
Hurricanes C Sutter leaves hospital after concussion
Carolina Hurricanes center Brandon Sutter left a Long Island hospital on Sunday after suffering a concussion during Saturday’s 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders.