Skip to main content

Which Teams Are Giving Up Those Juicy Rebounds?

Following up on our previous look at offensive rebound opportunities, it's now time to see which teams are locking down the front of the net, and which ones are rolling out the red carpet for opposing forwards to try, try again if their first shot doesn't succeed. We're looking at team performance here, as it seems to me that preventing rebounds is a joint effort. Goaltenders try to contain or at least manage them, and defensemen need to sweep them out of harm's way as quickly as possible, while tying up their opponent so they can't get a stick on the loose puck.

The table below shows Rebounds Allowed Per Game for the 2005-6 NHL Regular Season, as well as the numbers so far this season (through the 296 games as of November 19). The league averages were 1.8 rebounds per team per game last year, and 1.3 so far this year. Again, a rebound is here defined as a shot occurring within 5 seconds of another shot by the same team, from within 60 feet, without another intervening event. Top teams in each column are shaded green, and the bottom dwellers in pink. I've also included the Shooting Percentage for these rebound shots for the two seasons, to help give a rough idea of the overall impact from these numbers. For instance, if the Devils give up 1.16 more Rebound Per Game than the Red Wings (1.74-0.58), and the Shooting Percentage is about 27% on those shots, then you can "guesstimate" that rebound handling costs the Devils about a goal every third game defensively compared to Detroit, or about 25 goals over the course of the season.

So what do these numbers tell us? Well, for starters, the defensive dominance of the Detroit Red Wings is reaffirmed. Their mark of 0.58 rebounds allowed per game is far below the rest of the league, especially comparing them to the last-place New Jersey Devils, who give up 3 times as many rebounds per game! The biggest improvement year-on-year has been made by the Tampa Bay Lightning, who went from merely average to 2nd-best in preventing rebound opportunities. The Pittsburgh Penguins have made a similar improvement, but only raising them from "truly awful" to 3rd-worst in the NHL.

So does your favorite goalie need to attach flypaper to his leg pads, or does your defense need a knuckle-dragging, low-brow banger to keep opponents clear of the crease? Take a look below and write your local GM, I'm sure he'd be glad to hear opinions on the subject...

Click below to enlarge

Popular posts from this blog

Cheer up, it's the holidays...

Why is it that various media outlets continue trying to put their own spin on the "what's wrong with the NHL" story? Our latest example comes from The Hockey News , in a piece by Jay Greenburg entitled, "Excitement Level On The Decline." Take the opening sentence: Attendance is down and yet still up from before the lockout, leaving it arguable whether buildings in New Jersey and Florida are half-full or half empty. It's no surprise that attendance is down from last season, particularly if you compare the first half of 2005-06 to the first half of this year. Coming out of the lockout, there were legions of fans starved to see the on-ice product, particularly in light of the massive rule changes. This year is more indicative of business as usual, so the fact that the league is above pre-lockout levels is a positive. Toss in the projection that overall revenues are increasing despite a 1% decrease in attendance, and I'd say that paying fans have come back
Read more

How I'm Trying To Make Money Sports Blogging

To kick off this series of articles general sports-blogging articles here at OTF Classic, I think it's best to start with a comment that Brad left here last week, after I shared my goals for 2012 , which include specific revenue targets: I considered diving into the world of internet marketing myself, but I felt that my friends would hate me for bugging them about stuff. I mean, it's pretty low-risk high-reward, so it's tempting. I wouldn't mind reading about tips on how to maximize impact of blogging in general to make it a legitimate income source. Trying to make money at sports blogging can be a very touchy subject - for the vast majority of us, this is an activity we pursue to both exercise our creativity and share our love of the game, whether it's hockey, football, badminton, whatever, with fellow fans. Mixing that personal conversation with a commercial message can turn people off, especially if it becomes too intrusive for the reader. It's not unrea
Read more

Social Media, Internet Marketing, and Real, Paying Customers - it really works!

Applying the basic tenets of internet marketing (SEO best practices and social media network building) have helped me grow the readership and engagement over at On The Forecheck tremendously in recent years, but lately I've been wondering if those same techniques could be applied to small- or medium-sized local businesses, to help them drive real, tangible business results. I'm talking about not just drawing idle hockey fans looking to a blog so they can muse over line combinations, but helping businesses connect with potential customers in ways that otherwise wouldn't occur. Recently, I was able to help make just such a thing happen, and it shows just how great the opportunities are for small, local businesses which may not have the resources or skills available to extend their brand effectively on the internet.
Read more