Scott Cullen of TSN posted some of his award picks and some interesting stats through the first three quarters of the NHL season today. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in season totals, milestones and league leaders for the “big” stats that we forget about the bruisers and scrappers. Using Cullen’s list as my guide, here are some of the most interesting, bizarre and amusing stats you’ll come across.
- 27:12 minutes per game give Joni Pitkanen the NHL’s league lead in average time on ice. (I guess that’s what happens when you’re a half-decent defenseman on a nowhere near decent team.)
- David Koci gets beaten down enough in most of his career fights, but his ego should be bruised even more because he has the league’s lowest per game time on ice average of just three minutes. Essentially, you could go get a beer and never see Koci play for an entire game. (I guess you can’t really blame him for a league low 2 blocked shots since he’s rarely on the ice.)
- Cal Clutterbuck owns one of the NHL’s funniest last names as well as the league lead in hits at 256. He’s a little banged up, though, so he better watch Ryan Callahan who’s only one hit behind him at 255.
- The Sedin twins keep ascending the NHL’s ladder of elite players, but you’ll never call them the Clutterbuck Cousins. Daniel has a league low 6 hits while Henrik has 11. That combines for, what, a week of Callahan hits?
- Dennis Seidenberg’s nickname should be “puck sponge” (although that sounds kind of bad now that I think of it). He is by far the NHL’s leader in blocked shots with 186.
- I used to associate the Red Wings with faceoff dominance, but the Sharks are clearly the class of the league now. Manny Malhotra leads the league with a 61.8% faceoff percentage but his teammate Scott Nichol is just behind him with 61.5%. Joe Pavelski is sixth in the league with a 60.1% rate. Both Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are solid in the dot too.
- Two Montreal players lead the league in the shameful category of giveaways; Roman Hamrlik is the “champion” with 77 turnovers. It’s not surprising that Pavel Datsyuk is the league leader in takeaways with 101 but his lead is staggering. The closest competitor is certified man crush Ryan Kesler with 68.
- Finally, one of my favorite lesser-known stats is penalty differential. Dustin Brown is an artist at drawing penalties with a league leading 31. Rugged Calgary defenseman Robyn Regehr probably doesn’t draw too many penalties, so it’s not that jarring that he ranks last in differential with a minus-19.
(H/T to Kukla’s Korner)