This is the first installment of the Penalty Killing series. Since the PK is directly related to Power Play Opportunities (PPOs), I figured why not see how the other side lives. When I’m looking up stats for the PPO, all of the special teams’ stats are on the same page. So why tack on another task for myself for no other reason. As the PPO’s drop, so too will the times that teams are short handed, as you will be able to see yourself.

TSH Section

If you don’t like penalty killing, then you’ll be liking this trend as there’s a 12% drop in TSH rates! At the end of January, the PPO/TSH rate was about 4.53. It was skyrocketing since the season started, but the honeymoon has come and gone. And with interference calls dropping (see Power Play Opportunities article series), this should lead to more impeding of offensive players near the blue line. That is not necessarily a good thing.

Our very own Ducks are trying their best to be on nicest behavior as they are below the league average. And that’s a very good thing because we’re not a very good team on the PK!

PPGA Section

We are a terrible team on the PK. This week alone we gave up four goals being a man down. As a team, we might be making a video soon titled, “What Not To Do On a PK!” Sponsored by Trojan, “We aim to make sure that lamp is not lit.” And by Silicon sealants, “Guaranteed to keep the water out.” And by Snickers, “Not going anywhere anytime soon.”

Even though the PPGA is declining in the NHL, the Ducks choose to be trendsetters moving up from 7th to 3rd overall.

PK EFF section

You know what’s great about already hitting rock bottom? It’s the fact you can’t get any lower. The Ducks are still 29th for two weeks in a row. Let’s see a breakdown of this.

I made these charts to see if the Ducks are moving their legs. The first two games show that not moving your legs can get you into trouble. But the third game of the week I can only think of giving an award to Kari Lehtonen, Dallas’ netminder for causing a penalty against us as well as change of momentum. Even though we incurred a plethora of penalties in the first game of the week against the Sharks, we didn’t pay the price. In net was Fasth for that game. For the first two games, Fasth shut out the other team on the PK.

Things changed versus Dallas as Hiller played goalie and not very well. In the first period of that game, Hiller gave up two PP goals. Hiller ended his night early due to an injury. Fasth came in and back stopped two PK resulting in no other goals.

The last game against the Blues was just a wacky game. It’s one of those games where you just want to burn because some of it makes no sense and yet in a very poetic justice way, makes sense. That night both teams earned a point and we escaped with another in the shootout.

Hiller situation

The most important player on the PK is the goal tender. Only he can bail out the PK. With that said let’s compare our two netminders, Hiller and Fasth.

Hiller is 3-2-1 with a GAA of 3.69 and a save pct of .872. Total goals allowed: 20.

Fasth is 5-0-0 with a GAA of 1.72 and a save pct of .932 with one shutout. Total goals allowed: 10.

Here’s an article website that looked much more closely on Hiller and his bad play:

http://www.thegoalieguild.com/2013/02/11/goldies-notes-breaking-down-hillers-season/

There they noticed that Hiller has given up 11 goals on the PK. Of those 11, eight were scored on his blocker side. There is a little kink to Hiller’s game about his blocker side being locked. There is video to support their thesis. Yet the culprit of a majority of those PP goals on Hiller was due to not being able to track the puck. Our defense doesn’t do a great job of pushing players out of the way so Hiller can see those shots. The goals got to Hiller’s head. Factor in not being in top NHL shape and awareness, his confidence may be shot. It does not help when you see Fasth playing lights out with the same group of players out there either.

Fasth’s two PPGA just so happened during that wild and wacky St. Louis game where a total of 10 goals were scored and the winner had to be won by shootout. This is not an excuse for Fasth, but this is his first game where he didn’t look super human. Yet, he escaped with a win in the shootout. One more note on how weird that game was as it happened during the shootout. Fasth was playing up and creeping back into the net. The Blues player was driving hard down the middle of the ice going from right to left. As the Blues player tried to sweep the puck across his body, he missed the puck. Fasth followed the body movement of the Blues player which make him open up the five hole. But the puck wasn’t on the Blues’ player’s stick because he whiffed trying to carry it across his body. Unfortunately for Fasth, the whiffed puck continued to slide forward as Fasth opened his legs to slide with the Blues’ player. Shootout goal for the Blues. When you miss a puck, but still score a goal just means it’s simply one of those games you have to shake your head in sheer amusement.