The playoffs started last Wednesday, so I figure now is a good time to take a look at some of the league leaders. Obviously, you need to keep in mind that some teams played four games while some only played three so far. That’s before we even get to such important factors like “this team played against a good defense, great goalie or both” (see: Chicago and San Jose) versus “this team feasted upon a deeply flawed opponent and some lucky breaks” (see: Pittsburgh). Anyway, in this post, I’ll take a look at the “typical” stats. If there’s enough interesting/quirky stuff there will be a post for the more unusual stats.
Points Leaders
1. Sidney Crosby - 11 pts
2. Henrik Zetterberg - 7 pts
3 (tied with 6 points). Nicklas Backstrom
* Matt Cullen
* Mike Richards
* Ilya Kovalchuk
* and Sergei Gonchar
4. 14 players with 5 points.
Goal scoring leaders
1. Henrik Zetterberg - 5 goals
2 (tied with 4 goals). Sidney Crosby
Nicklas Backstrom
Mikael Samuelsson
Evgeni Malkin
3. 5 tied with 3 goals
Plus/minus leaders
1 (tied at +7) Sidney Crosby
Bill Guerin
2. Chris Kunitz +6
3 (tied with +5) David Legwand
Tom Poti
John Carlson
Sergei Gonchar
Goalie Saves
1. Craig Anderson - 165
2. Ilya Bryzgalov - 131
3. Jimmy Howard - 117
4. Brian Boucher - 98
5. Evgeni Nabokov - 94
(Yup, that means Anderson faced 71 more shots than Nabokov in four games so far. Wow.)
Save percentage
1. Pekka Rinne - 95.3% (82 saves in three games so far for Rinne who will likely pass Boucher and Nabokov in saves through four games.)
2. Craig Anderson - 94.8%
3. Tuukka Rask - 93.6%
4. Ryan Miller 92.9%
5. Antti Niemi - 92.7%
Goals Against Average
1. Pekka Rinne - 1.35 GAA
2. Brian Boucher - 1.98 GAA
3(tied with 2.01 GAA). Tuukka Rask
Antti Niemi (both are tied in being Finnish, too)
4. Craig Anderson - 2.11 GAA
5 (tied at 2.12 GAA) Semyon Varlamov
Evgeni Nabokov (Tied in Russian-ness too!)
So far, there have been some amazing goalie performances. Who’s been better so far: Craig Anderson or Pekka Rinne? Either way, it’s pretty hard to throw Antti Niemi under the bus for the Blackhawks’ struggles. Right?