On the Forecheck

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Who’s Naughty, Who’s Nice

by Forechecker on 12/23/08 at 04:09 PM ET
Comments (5)

This week’s update of the NHL Penalty Plus/Minus numbers brings us new leadership at both ends of the scale; L.A’s Dustin Brown (+20) has pulled ahead of Calgary captain Jarome Iginla at +18 and the Kings’ Patrick O’Sullivan (+17), while San Jose defenseman Rob Blake has sunk below three competitors to hold down the bottom with a -16. (Ed: data correction made shortly after this was initially posted)

But let’s take a further view to find out how Santa Claus will treat some of your favorite NHL players later this week…

Data updated each Monday during the season
Click here to go to the Google Doc

When it comes to receiving lumps of coal, the forwards who toil towards the bottom of the standings here are likely candidates: Robert Lang in Montreal, Olli Jokinen in Phoenix, Rob Niedermayer in Anaheim, and David Backes in St. Louis, all of whom have earned a -10 so far.

And who will find shiny new toys under the tree? Perhaps Carolina’s Tim Gleason, a defenseman with a +7, the highest mark among blueliners and only a step ahead of Colorado’s Scott Hannan and Toronto’s Ian White at +6.

And as a special holiday treat, here’s the data rolled up to the team level, and grouped for forwards and defensemen. It doesn’t include Bench minors, which are a very small portion of the overall totals, but this does present a good picture of overall team play and discipline so far:

	Team Total			Forwards			Defense
Team	Draws	Fouls	P +/-	Draws	Fouls	P +/-	Draws	Fouls	P +/-
San Jose Sharks	188	162	26	145	93	52	42	68	-26
Toronto Maple Leafs	171	150	21	121	93	28	47	56	-9
Carolina Hurricanes	181	161	20	127	94	33	54	63	-9
New York Rangers	199	186	13	161	121	40	37	64	-27
Minnesota Wild	160	150	10	115	84	31	43	66	-23
Phoenix Coyotes	178	169	9	134	114	20	43	54	-11
Pittsburgh Penguins	176	173	3	143	121	22	33	49	-16
Los Angeles Kings	164	162	2	129	100	29	32	61	-29
Buffalo Sabres	178	176	2	144	129	15	33	45	-12
Calgary Flames	197	197	0	132	110	22	58	85	-27
Chicago Blackhawks	171	174	-3	138	122	16	31	50	-19
Vancouver Canucks	214	218	-4	146	118	28	63	99	-36
Dallas Stars	178	182	-4	146	122	24	28	58	-30
Colorado Avalanche	170	174	-4	137	132	5	29	42	-13
Atlanta Thrashers	179	184	-5	128	101	27	46	81	-35
Columbus Blue Jackets	184	191	-7	144	127	17	36	64	-28
Boston Bruins	158	166	-8	118	99	19	37	65	-28
Edmonton Oilers	168	176	-8	124	105	19	35	71	-36
St. Louis Blues	191	202	-11	152	132	20	34	70	-36
New York Islanders	182	193	-11	134	117	17	41	73	-32
Montreal Canadiens	180	192	-12	138	127	11	35	63	-28
Detroit Red Wings	136	152	-16	113	98	15	22	53	-31
New Jersey Devils	126	142	-16	95	88	7	29	53	-24
Ottawa Senators	148	165	-17	124	117	7	22	46	-24
Florida Panthers	132	155	-23	95	84	11	35	71	-36
Tampa Bay Lightning	136	160	-24	104	90	14	28	65	-37
Nashville Predators	180	208	-28	131	120	11	44	87	-43
Philadelphia Flyers	195	227	-32	153	143	10	38	84	-46
Washington Capitals	157	189	-32	118	117	1	36	69	-33
Anaheim Ducks	183	241	-58	136	148	-12	43	92	-49
Grand Total	5160	5377	-217	3925	3366	559	1134	1967	-833

Gee, no wonder when Brian Burke was still with the Ducks he pushed to have penalties cut in half during overtimes; this was one of the dumbest, most self-serving suggestions I’ve seen in quite a while. I’m guessing we’re not going to hear quite so much of that now that he’s in Toronto.

My posting activity will probably be quite light over the next few days, so if I don’t catch your comments or Tweets until next week, Happy Holidays, folks…

Filed in: NHL Statistical Analysis | On the Forecheck | Permalink
Tags: brian+burke, jarome+iginla, rob+blake,

Comments

so what is the penalty plus minus? at first i thought it was just plus/minus but that cant be rite since brown is a - 5 not a plus 20.

Posted by Luongo-is-my-hero on 12/23/08 at 04:54 PM ET

Its penalty +/- . Its how many penaltys you draw compared to how many you take. In other words, it lets you look at a player like Jarkko Ruutu for instance and say “Yeah, his antics really aren’t worth it considering he’s a -4”
The -4 means that he has taken 4 more penalties than he’s drawn.

Its just another way to look at how players are performing. Like the fact that Sidney Crosby obviously isn’t playing as well as usual, because usually he is high up in the list, but right now isn’t drawing anywhere near as many penalties, and is also taking way too many.

Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 12/23/08 at 05:01 PM ET

Maybe I’m being dense, but it seems like something doesn’t add up:

3925 forward draws
+
1134 defense draws
=
5059 total draws

But you have 5160 listed for total team draws?

At first I thought this was caused by goalies being included in the team totals, but if that were the case, wouldn’t the total number of draws equal the total number of fouls? By that, I mean it’s reasonable to assume a league-wide penalty minus if goalies are excluded (since they draw more than they take), but not if they are included. Does that make any sense?

Posted by shep on 12/23/08 at 06:19 PM ET

I should think a bit more before I post…

Are delay of game penalties (and any other ‘victimless’ types) included in the list? That would account for a fewer number of draws than fouls.

Posted by shep on 12/23/08 at 06:24 PM ET

Shep, the Total Drawn & Total Taken don’t balance out because many penalties don’t have a “victim”, like Delay of Game, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, etc. And as you observe, the Total column includes goalie numbers.

Posted by Forechecker from Nolensville, TN on 12/23/08 at 06:35 PM ET

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Dirk Hoag is the Forechecker, churner of NHL stats and analysis. Having started over 10 years ago writing for websites like In the Crease and e-Sports, Dirk launched On The Forecheck in 2005 to cover the Nashville Predators as well as apply statistical analysis to NHL hockey.

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