A Tale of Four Teams Part III

While we are not officially at the halfway point of the NHL season yet, the Christmas break is a time to pause and take stock of how teams are performing.  With that in mind I figured I’d return to my exploration of how the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, and Washington Capitals are fairing in terms of generating scoring chances (and high-danger chances) for and limiting scoring chances (and high-danger chances) against. Continue reading “A Tale of Four Teams Part III”

A Tale of Four Teams Part II

In Part I, data on scoring chances and high-danger chancers from roughly the first two months of the 2015-16 season for four anonymous teams was presented.  All four teams play in the Eastern Conference and at the end of play on November 27, 2015 they were at or above NHL .500.  One team, Team B, clearly has played a low-event style.  Another team, Team C, seems to be – for lack of a better phrase right now – living dangerously.  The remaining two teams have been winning the scoring chance battle more often than not, although Team D has consistently generated more scoring chances this season.  In this follow up, I’ll reveal who the four teams, note where they currently stand in the Eastern Conference, and discuss what their scoring chance numbers may mean for December and beyond. Continue reading “A Tale of Four Teams Part II”

A Tale of 4 Teams Part I

We are already through a quarter of the 2015-16 NHL season.  While 20 to 25 games is not a large sample I wanted to take a look at how some teams have been doing in terms of generating high-danger chances and scoring chances (see this post at war-on-ice for a quick explanation).  What I’m interested in starting to explore here is the idea that it may be more valuable to generate scoring chances, and particularly high-danger chances, than simply generating a greater volume of shot attempts.  In other words, my thinking is that good teams will more often than not generate more scoring chances and high-danger chances than their opponents.   Continue reading “A Tale of 4 Teams Part I”