With Thursday’s win against the Arizona Coyotes the Dallas Stars have won three straight games and pulled above .500 for the first time this season.
And through seven games special teams have been the catalyst for success. The Stars have the NHL’s third-best statistical penalty kill at 88.9 percent, while the power play is tied for third with a 28.6 percent success rate.
Combined together that equals 117.5, well above the goal of 105 that the Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock has set for his team.
The thought process is that if your power play percentage and penalty kill percentage numbers add up to 105 — no matter how they do it — you are finishing on the plus side of special teams.
And by that metric, which we can call combined special team efficiency, the Stars have the best overall special teams performance in the NHL two weeks into the regular season. Here is how it stacks up against the other 30 teams:
NHL Combined Special Teams Efficiency
1. Dallas Stars, 117.5 (88.9 + 28.6)
2. Los Angeles Kings, 115.8 (95.8 + 20)
3. Ottawa Senators, 114.1 (95.2 + 18.1)
4. Toronto Maple Leafs, 113.4 (83.3 + 30)
5. Nashville Predators, 111.5 (84.8 + 26.7)
6. San Jose Sharks, 111.2 (28.6 + 82.6)
7. Boston Bruins, 110.4 (29.6 + 80.8)
8. Pittsburgh Penguins, 110.5 (82.9 + 27.6)
9. Calgary Flames, 107.8 (88.6 + 19.2)
10. Minnesota Wild, 106.4 (77.8 + 28.6)
11. Tampa Bay Lightning, 106 (81.8 + 24.2)
12. Washington Capitals, 105.7 (78.6 + 26.1)
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13. Carolina Hurricanes, 103 (81.3 + 21.7)
14. New Jersey Devils, 102.4 (75.7 + 26.7)
15. Detroit Red Wings, 101.5 (86.7 + 14.8)
16. Philadelphia Flyers, 100.4 (77.8 + 22.6)
17. Buffalo Sabres, 99.3 (80.8 + 18.5)
18. Chicago Blackhawks, 98.7 (83.3 + 15.4)
19. New York Rangers, 96.6 (73.3 + 23.3)
20. St. Louis Blues, 93.2 (77.1 + 16.1)
21. Edmonton Oilers, 93.1 (74.1 + 19)
22. Florida Panthers, 92.9 (76.7 + 16.2)
23. Colorado Avalanche, 92 (75.8 + 16.2)
24. Arizona Coyotes, 91 (75 + 16)
25. Vancouver Canucks, 90.7 (77.8 + 12.9)
26. Columbus Blue Jackets, 86.6 (81.3 + 5.3)
27. Vegas Golden Knights, 86.6 (78.9 + 7.7)
28. New York Islanders, 85.3 (81 + 4.3)
29. Winnipeg Jets, 85 (75 + 10)
30. Montreal Canadiens, 84.6 (76.9 + 7.7)
31. Anaheim Ducks, 82.8 (82.8 + 0)
Housekeeping notes
— The mailbag comes out later today, as always it was fun to work on this week.
— October Prospect Insider comes out early next next week after some extended notes/viewing information on prospects from this weekend.
Catch-up links
The Stars won on the road and Jamie Oleksiak struggled. More in my post-game notes
Today’s Schedule
It’s travel day for the Stars back from Arizona, so no practice. The team plays the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at home.
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