The All-Time Ranking Of The Oilers Special Teams (STE)

by Derek Zona on Feb 14, 2011 11:30 AM MST in Analysis

Two months ago, in a quest to determine just how bad the Oilers special teams were, I created a simple but useful metric:

If we had a simple metric to apply to special teams, we could get a sense of just how much of an impact special teams can have on a season. Since the league average for power play success percentage plus penalty kill success percentage is 100, why not add the two and use it as a baseline for measuring special teams efficiency? Though the tendency to regress toward the mean may be somewhat less strong (but then again, maybe not!), it may still be useful as an evaluation tool. In this case, we'll call the combined number Special Teams Efficiency, or STE.

Since writing that article, it's been nothing but sunshine, lollipops and rainbows in Edmonton as the Oilers have raised their STE from 83.31 up to 86.80. It's been an astounding climb from 30th place to 30th place. The Oilers trail 29th place Toronto by 6.79 percentage points, so barring a miracle of immaculate proportions, the Oilers will finish last overall in STE in the league.

The gap between 29th and 30th is larger than the gap between any three other spots in the list, so it follows that the Oilers STE might be one of historically bad proportions. After the jump is a list of the all-time worst special teams in the NHL since Original Six expansion.

Year	Team	PK	PP	STE
77-78	St. Louis	73.2	16.67	89.87
73-74	Long Island	75.95	13.91	89.86
92-93	Ottawa	75	14.73	89.73
76-77	Detroit	76.97	12.59	89.56
70-71	California	77.17	12.34	89.51
88-89	Toronto	72.7	16.77	89.47
83-84	New Jersey	75.3	14.05	89.35
77-78	Cleveland	74.04	15.27	89.31
85-86	Los Angeles	71.7	17.56	89.26
78-79	Washington	70.25	18.87	89.12
90-91	Quebec	73.37	15.55	88.92
75-76	Washington	74.6	14.13	88.73
74-75	Minnesota	73.27	15.36	88.63
09-10	Toronto	74.65	13.97	88.62
74-75	California	74.91	13.37	88.28
75-76	Minnesota	73.46	14.5	87.96
93-94	Ottawa	73.3	14.48	87.78
94-95	Anaheim	75.65	11.39	87.04
77-78	Minnesota	72.02	14.94	86.96
10-11	Edmonton	75	11.44	86.80
72-73	Long Island	75.86	10.85	86.71
82-83	Detroit	72.6	13.81	86.41
75-76	Kansas City	72.88	13.07	85.95
74-75	Washington	71.34	12.9	84.24
77-78	Washington	71.92	12.23	84.15

There you have it. The Edmonton Oilers have the worst special teams in the NHL since the 1982-1983 Detroit Red Wings. In the Ducks game thread, I mentioned the final penalty kill having some historical significance -- by killing that penalty, the Oilers vaulted over the Islanders and out of the bottom five. Even though the OIlers are just playing out the string, fans have something to track -- can the Oilers stay out of the bottom five all-time? Except for Detroit, the teams they've managed to put behind them with their post-December rally were all expansion teams and except for the North Stars, the teams directly in front of them were expansion teams.

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Comments

I wonder if it might be instructive to look at special teams’ PDO, which would be shooting percentage on the PP and save percentage on the PK. EDM is at 940 which seems rather bad to me. Seems like they are getting unlucky in addition to being terrible (they are -17 shots/60 in PP – PK shot differential)

by Triumph44 on Feb 14, 2011 11:57 AM MST reply actions

It’s definitely a combination of both. You can’t go 0-50 on the PP without some horrific luck combined with terrible play.

In theory, there is little difference between practice and theory, but in practice there is!

by dawgbone98 on Feb 14, 2011 1:34 PM MST up reply actions

I’m wondering, if what little confidence the team has left continues to wither and die with every loss, can we swing the other way getting back to that 83.31 that would give us the true All-Time Rank~~ing~~est Special Teams?

It's a catastrophic success. (Read: GO OILERS GO)

by Joe Girth on Feb 14, 2011 12:18 PM MST reply actions

As bad as the special teams have been I doubt they can be bad enough to get to the bottom of the list. The farther in to the season you get the harder it is to move those percentages. Take our miserable powerplay as an example. For that 11.3% success rate to drop another 1% the Oilers would have to fail on their next 20 tries. The powerplay is awful but it can’t consistently go on 0-for-40 runs. At least I really hope it can’t.

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.

by ryanbatty on Feb 14, 2011 12:47 PM MST up reply actions

That sounds like another challenge!

It's a catastrophic success. (Read: GO OILERS GO)

by Joe Girth on Feb 14, 2011 12:58 PM MST up reply actions

but on the flip side that PK% can drop in a hurry.

In theory, there is little difference between practice and theory, but in practice there is!

by dawgbone98 on Feb 14, 2011 1:35 PM MST up reply actions

Tell Ralph to go back to the diamond

by Matt.N on Feb 14, 2011 3:03 PM MST up reply actions

Giving up 5 goals on their next 10 penalty kills pushes them below Kansas City.

Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.

by Derek Zona on Feb 14, 2011 4:12 PM MST up reply actions

I was going to do the math myself. Thanks for getting me off the hook.

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.

by ryanbatty on Feb 14, 2011 4:22 PM MST up reply actions

With a little more bad luck and bad play over the stretch here, the Oilers llok like they could have the worst power-play in league history.

fingers crossed

A posse ad esse.

The Copper & Blue|OilersNation|Hockey or Die!

Twitter: @JonathanWillis
Mail: jonathan.willis@live.ca

by Jonathan Willis on Feb 14, 2011 3:21 PM MST reply actions

But when we look back on this, we’ll all see just how perfect Tom Renney was for this team.

Editor of The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.

by Derek Zona on Feb 14, 2011 8:55 PM MST up reply actions

This is a good idea. Pass it over to the behindthenet guys. Maybe they can also do situational shot differential per game too.

http://hockeyzen.com - An Oilers blog

by mindmasher on Feb 14, 2011 4:03 PM MST reply actions

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