It’s been a very interesting and busy month here at The Predatorial, so I figured I would reward myself, the blog, you readers, and anyone else I haven’t mentioned, by straying off the Gold/Blue-lined road for just a moment to delve into the wonderful world of sports statistics that can be OH SO FUN to read about.
Over the next couple of weeks before the Predators rookie training camp begins, I’m going to try to delve into the number books for last season and appeal to you with wild, crazy, and intriguing numbers that could potentially BLOW YOUR MIND! (Well…maybe not blow your mind, but you should have fun anyways)
Today’s stat?
Saturday night records from the 2010-2011 NHL Season for all 30 teams
(REGULAR SEASON)
Yay! What fun! You’ll be surprised, though, when reading this at some of the strange and interesting facts I found out about the wonderful day we here in Nashville know as “Hockey Night innnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Smashville” (credit: Paul McCann, Nashville Predators Public Address Announcer)
So, without further ado, let’s begin!
1 ) Out of all 30 teams, only 4 of the 16 playoff teams ended up in the BOTTOM half of the league in terms of win percentage on Saturday:
Buffalo – 50% Win Percentage on Satuday
Phoenix – 47.4% Win Percentage on Saturday
Anaheim – 46.2% Win Percentage on Saturday
Boston – 33.3% Win Percentage on Saturday
2 ) The highest NON-playoff team in the league for win percentage on Saturday?:
Florida Panthers – 58.8%
3 ) Best winning percentage on Saturday from each division:
CENTRAL – Detroit (66.7%)
NORTHWEST – Vancouver (53.3%)
PACIFIC – Los Angeles/San Jose (69.6%)
ATLANTIC – Pittsburgh (70.6%)
NORTHEAST – Montreal (76.2%)
SOUTHEAST – Tampa Bay (60%)
4 ) Best in the league on Saturday?
Montreal Canadiens: A whopping 16-4-1 record on Saturday games (10-3-1 at home and 6-4-1 away)
5 ) Worst in the league on Saturday?
New Jersey Devils: A not-so-whopping 4-13-1 record on Saturday games (2-4-0 at home and 2-9-1 away)
6 ) Least amount of home Saturday games played?
3 VERY surprising teams:
Anaheim Ducks (ZERO home Saturday games)
New York Rangers (ONE home Saturday game [last day of the season])
Chicago Blackhawks (FOUR home Saturday games)
7 ) Least amount of away Saturday games played?
Vancouver and Phoenix both are tied with 4 away Saturday games played and Edmonton comes in at a close second with 5 games played away from home on Saturday
8 ) Chasing Perfection at home
Only 1 team (2 if you include the Ducks, who had zero home games) was perfect at home on Saturday, the being the New York Rangers with their 1-0-0 record.
Next closest? Florida Panthers with their 5-1-1 record
9 ) Chasing Perfection on the road
One team was completely perfect on the road, two were undefeated in regulation, and six teams had only 1 road regulation loss:
Vancouver Canucks: 4-0-0
Chicago Blackhawks: 6-0-4
Pittsburgh Penguins: 10-0-1
Montreal Canadiens: 6-1-0
Philadelphia Flyers: 5-1-2
Phoenix Coyotes: 3-1-0
San Jose Sharks: 6-1-0
Los Angeles Kings: 7-1-0
Boston Bruins: 4-1-3
10 ) Most overtime losses?
Surprisingly, not the Nashville Predators!
Home: Phoenix Coyotes – 5 overtime losses (2 SO and 3 OT)
Away: Chicago Blackhawks – 4 overtime losses (3 SO and 1 OT)
Total: Boston Bruins – 7 overtime losses (4 SO and 3 OT)
11 ) Which conference has the best win percentage (average)?
Eastern Conference – 49.88% Win Percentage on Saturday
Western Conference – 49.36% Win Percentage on Saturday
12 ) Best/worst division win percentage (average)?
CENTRAL – 54.02% Win Percentage on Saturday
NORTHWEST – 37.5% Win Percentage on Saturday
PACIFIC – 56.56% Win Percentage on Saturday
ATLANTIC - 51.9% Win Percentage on Saturday
NORTHEAST – 46.74% Win Percentage on Saturday
SOUTHEAST – 51% Win Percentage on Saturday
13 ) California Love
If you think you are going to fly into California on a Saturday and your team is going to leave with a win, you may be in for a rude awakening.
As Anaheim didn’t have a single home regular season Saturday game, that left LA and San Jose with the bulk of them, and they didn’t disappoint their fans as they went a combined 19-8-4 at home, both tying with a 69.6% win percentage.
14 ) 10-Home Wins Club
Only three teams this past season eclipsed the 10 home Saturday win mark. Montreal, San Jose, and Nashville.
Nashville had the lowest Saturday win percentage of the three with 59% (compared to 76.2% and 69.6% respectively)
15 ) Haters and Lovers of Saturday
Anaheim, Calgary, and Edmonton played the LEAST total games on Saturday with 13 each
9 teams played over a quarter of their season on Saturday (Toronto, Los Angeles, San Jose, Buffalo, Nashville, Boston, St. Louis, and Montreal)
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All in all, taking a look at these stats is a lot of fun and if by chance you like to wager on sports, then maybe these numbers help you out some (I doubt it, seeing as things change from year to year)
I think what shocked me the most about these numbers is the fact that Anaheim played ZERO home games on Saturday last season…ZERO! While the Rangers played one and Blackhawks played only 4 is mind-boggling. Of course, I understand the demand of other events at their respective arenas, but Saturday night is a perfect night for hockey.
Don’t believe me? Come to Nashville for a hockey weekend and you’ll understand why
Mind officially blown….I have a damn good record for Tuesday night games in that I never saw the Preds lose in regulation if I attended a Tuesday night game. Beat that..
Yeah, I’ll beat it. Try this:
Nashville played 14 games on Tuesday night this season. They went 5-4-5 on Tuesday (SECOND WORST night of the season for the Preds)
They went 4-3-3 at home on Tuesdays. Did you go to all 4 of those?
Yep…I rock
Players for the Ducks, Rangers, and Hawks are always good for fantasy teams because they play plenty of games on Fridays and Sundays when most other teams don’t play so you can juggle the lineup to get more player/games in during some weeks. I didn’t realize that the Ducks actually did not have any games at home on Saturday.
Exactly. It was just truly shocking that Anaheim didn’t have a SINGLE home Saturday game, lol