Behindthenet Blog

Scoring rates go way up on the power-play, making it a goaltender's toughest assignment. (Ray Emery fighting Andrew Peters doesn't count.) To quantify the difference, here's the same plot as we had for 5-on-5 play, except for 5-on-4:



As you can see, the high-scoring zone is much larger than it is for even-strength play. You can also see that teams don't take a lot of shots from tough angles (I excluded any quadrants with fewer than 10 shots in the last six seasons, resulting in some blank zones). So not only is it easier to score from a given spot on the ice, teams also take more high-probability shots, and average save percentages drop from 915 to 877.

I've reproduced the same chart as in the previous post, showing which goalies reduce their 4v5 goals-against-average by the most. Here we have a minimum of 30 minutes played, so one or two goals can skew the results considerably. Henrik Lundqvist again comes out near the top - is he really that good? Or do MSG scorers consistently report that the puck is shot from closer than it really is? [That's a subject for another post.]

PLAYER	GP	TOI	SOG	GA	SPCT	GAA	EXGA	EXSPCT	EGAA	DELTAGAA
MIKESMITH	12	62:55	55	4	927	3.81	8.31	848	7.92	-4.11
MATHIEUGARON	18	88:58	75	6	920	4.04	10.8	855	7.30	-3.25
FREDRIKNORRENA	15	78:01	70	4	942	3.07	8.21	882	6.31	-3.23
MARTYTURCO	25	131:09	124	12	903	5.48	18.6	849	8.55	-3.06
JONASHILLER	8	40:56	42	4	904	5.86	5.8	861	8.50	-2.63
HENRIKLUNDQVIST	31	160:05	144	15	895	5.62	21.9	847	8.21	-2.59
CHRISOSGOOD	19	105:43	80	7	912	3.97	11.5	855	6.55	-2.58
MIKAELTELLQVIST	10	46:04	48	4	916	5.20	5.85	878	7.61	-2.40
CURTISSANFORD	8	36:56	39	3	923	4.87	4.39	887	7.13	-2.25
TOMASVOKOUN	32	179:50	179	17	905	5.67	23.4	869	7.82	-2.14
BRENTJOHNSON	9	58:27	58	4	931	4.10	6.06	895	6.22	-2.11
NIKOLAIKHABIBULIN	25	143:34	126	15	880	6.26	19.9	841	8.32	-2.06
HANNUTOIVONEN	10	52:55	42	5	880	5.66	6.59	843	7.47	-1.80
MARTINBRODEUR	30	158:20	172	18	895	6.82	22.6	868	8.56	-1.74
JASONLABARBERA	22	96:47	113	14	876	8.67	16.6	852	10.3	-1.66
PASCALLECLAIRE	23	121:46	132	14	893	6.89	16.9	871	8.37	-1.47
MARCDENIS	10	37:04	32	4	875	6.47	4.8	850	7.76	-1.29
EVGENINABOKOV	35	165:43	120	13	891	4.70	16.5	862	5.99	-1.28
MARTINGERBER	24	150:51	120	13	891	5.17	16.0	866	6.37	-1.20
CAREYPRICE	17	85:47	115	15	869	10.4	16.5	856	11.5	-1.07
JOHANHOLMQVIST	30	139:18	145	17	882	7.32	19.3	866	8.33	-1.01
CRISTOBALHUET	18	87:53	86	10	883	6.82	11.4	867	7.79	-0.96
DOMINIKHASEK	18	129:34	94	13	861	6.02	15.0	840	6.96	-0.94
JOSETHEODORE	15	70:08	52	6	884	5.13	7.09	863	6.06	-0.93
RICKDIPIETRO	32	195:02	160	18	887	5.53	20.8	869	6.41	-0.87
DANELLIS	14	70:05	55	6	890	5.13	6.95	873	5.95	-0.81
RYANMILLER	31	188:19	163	19	883	6.05	20.8	872	6.62	-0.57
PATRICKLALIME	10	59:23	43	6	860	6.06	6.52	848	6.58	-0.52
JOSHHARDING	15	70:03	85	10	882	8.56	10.6	875	9.07	-0.51
ANDREWRAYCROFT	10	46:52	49	6	877	7.68	6.39	869	8.18	-0.49
EMMANUELLEGACE	23	141:07	85	10	882	4.25	11.1	869	4.73	-0.48
VESATOSKALA	29	166:53	143	19	867	6.83	20.2	858	7.27	-0.44
TIMOTHY JR.THOMAS	22	105:52	113	13	884	7.36	13.7	878	7.80	-0.44
NIKLASBACKSTROM	22	129:46	109	14	871	6.47	14.4	867	6.67	-0.19
ROBERTOLUONGO	29	164:10	161	22	863	8.04	22.4	860	8.21	-0.17
JOHANHEDBERG	20	95:44	91	12	868	7.52	12.0	867	7.54	-0.02
OLAFKOLZIG	28	160:23	168	22	869	8.23	21.9	869	8.22	0.003
J-SEBASTIENAUBIN	13	42:18	53	7	867	9.92	6.96	868	9.87	0.056
RAYEMERY	12	59:40	57	7	877	7.03	6.87	879	6.90	0.130
ALEXAULD	15	69:40	78	11	858	9.47	10.6	863	9.14	0.327
DWAYNEROLOSON	22	106:40	116	17	853	9.56	15.9	862	8.94	0.618
CAMWARD	27	146:32	144	22	847	9.00	19.9	861	8.15	0.855
MARTINBIRON	28	156:17	157	21	866	8.06	18.7	880	7.19	0.867
KARILEHTONEN	13	61:16	72	10	861	9.79	9.05	874	8.86	0.930
DANYSABOURIN	18	76:07	76	11	855	8.67	9.79	871	7.71	0.953
ILJABRYZGALOV	25	136:19	118	18	847	7.92	15.8	866	6.95	0.963
CHRISMASON	24	114:03	77	11	857	5.78	9.06	882	4.76	1.020
JEAN-SEBASTIENGIGUERE	27	159:32	156	24	846	9.02	21.0	864	7.92	1.101
MARC-ANDREFLEURY	21	98:20	104	16	846	9.76	13.5	869	8.28	1.482
PETERBUDAJ	22	91:38	86	15	825	9.82	12.2	857	8.00	1.813
MIIKKAKIPRUSOFF	35	204:31	166	29	825	8.50	21.3	871	6.25	2.250
ANTERONIITTYMAKI	8	35:56	34	7	794	11.6	5.08	850	8.48	3.205
JOHNGRAHAME	11	53:52	52	10	807	11.1	6.71	870	7.47	3.664

Labels: Goaltending