The Captials were ranked first in OCTR during the regular season, but seventh during their elimination Montreal, while the Sharks were ranked No. 1 after the first round.
“It isn’t tennis, I can tell you that much!” xxclaimed one local observer who, out of embarrassment, wished to remain anonymous. “They both just kinda…push the ball over the net, you know?"
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By Christopher Reina
I created a ranking system called the ‘Floor Impact Counter’ for basketball, for baseball and football, it is renamed the ‘Field Impact Counter’ and for ice hockey it is called the ‘Ice Impact Counter’ or the IIC.
There is never a be-all and end-all in any ranking system (particularly in a sport like hockey where intangibles are exceedingly important), but I believe the below formula is equally fair to forwards, defensemen and goaltenders.
IIC Formula For Forwards
(3 Regular Goals
+ 2 Power Play Goals
+ 4 Shorthanded Goals
+ 4 Game-Winning Goals
+ 5 Overtime Goals
+ 2 Assists
+ Plus/Minus Total
- .25 Penalty Minutes
- .33 Shots on Goal)
IIC Formula For Defensemen
(5 Regular Goals
+ 4 Power Play Goals
+ 6 Shorthanded Goals
+ 5 Game-Winning Goals
+ 6 Overtime Goals
+ 3 Assists
+ Plus/Minus Total
- .25 Penalty Minutes
- .33 Shots on Goal)
IIC Formula For Goalies
(.7 Wins
+.2 OT Loss
+ Shutout
+ .17 Saves
+ .25 Shootout saves
- .25 Losses
- 1.23 Goals Against
- .35 Shootout goals against)
Here is how the players rank at each position through Sunday's games.
- Evgeni Malkin is the NHL's points leader, but trails Pavel Datsyuk, David Krejci, Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton in Season IIC.
- Alex Ovechkin leads the NHL with 41 goals including nine game winnters.
- Kris Versteeg of the Blackhawks leads rookies in points with 42.
- Mike Green leads all players in IIC, largely thanks to his 22 goals, 28 assists, excellent +/- of 28 and an incredible shot percentage of 14.6%, an extremely rare number for a blue liner to post.
- Dennis Wideman has 39 points and a +/- of 29, while Nicklas Lidstrom has an excellent, albeit human by his standards, 40 points.
- Niklas Backstrom has appeared in 47 games, far more than most other goalies not named Mikka Kiprusoff and he's maintained an excellent save percentage of 92.6% while also shutting out six games.
- Steve Mason, along with Boston's Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez have the best goals against averages in the NHL, with all three allowing fewer than 2.15 goals per game.
- Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM
