Sixty-nine percent of the game was played at five-on-five.Īs we got later into the series, however, the power-play opportunities dried up for both teams. Game 2 was similar, with the Lightning winning the game thanks to going 3-for-7 on the power play and the Leafs going 0-for-4. It was one of five penalties the Leafs killed off that game, and they also had six of their own power plays.Īll told, just 57 percent of Game 1 was played with five men on the ice for each team.
You might remember that game thanks to the Leafs’ clinical five-minute penalty kill after Kyle Clifford went to the box for boarding Ross Colton midway through the first period. I was in the midst of a project in which I went through the first-round series between the Leafs and the Lightning last season, and a thought struck me when I was re-watching Game 1 of that series.
This increase in power plays is concentrated to just a few games in the playoffs. So why does it feel like referees put the whistles away? Read more: Jack Eichel, Nico Hischier and more: 8 NHL players poised for playoff breakouts So, a seven-percent increase in power-play opportunities against a three-percent increase in playing time means that yes, even on a per-minute basis, there are more penalties resulting in power-play opportunities called in the playoffs. Despite one of the games in this sample lasting until the fifth overtime, there’s only a couple of extra minutes played in a playoff game than a regular-season game over this span - 60:44 played in the average regular season game versus 62:41 in the playoffs, so a little under a two-minute increase per game. Secondly, I’m not looking at a per-minute basis, because I’m lazy, and there is more time-on-ice per game in the postseason thanks to continuous overtime. One is that there is (probably) some increased physicality in the playoffs, and that should account for a more-than-negligible increase in penalties called. Now, this obviously overlooks several factors.
0 kommentar(er)
