I did the math on it because I was curious. The numbers are very far from perfect, but by the numbers punched by a 21 year old who was good at math in high school but took one math class freshman year of college and hasn't thought about math since, here's what I got.
Based on the stats, we score 1 goal every 16.2 minutes of being on a PP. We score 1 goal every 24.3 minutes of being 5 on 5.
Obviously we score more often on the PP, but it's surprisingly and embarrassingly close.
For comparative purposes, the #1 PP unit in the league is Vancouver. They score a PP goal once every 7.75 minutes of being on a PP. They score 1 goal every 26.5 minutes of being 5 on 5.
Some interesting numbers
I wasn't fully leaning towards the goals, but the way we look (passing, positioning and all that good stuff) We look much more comfortable 5v5 than we do a man up and stats wise your numbers nearly show so
I haven't been able to watch too many of the games, so someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.
But haven't the Devils been using 3 forward pairings at times on the PK as opposed to just the normal 2? That definitely has to play a role. The guys on the PK are fresher because they're not playing as much time on the PK. I don't know how many defensive pairs are rotating on our PK, but I would assume 2.
And as said before, the players are a big factor too. Ryan Carter has been solid there, we have Parise back on the PK, Salvador is back, etc. The personnel alone is much better on our PK than last year. Kind of intrigued to see if they perform even better when Zajac is back.
We have at least 3 forward killing units: Parise-Henrique, Zubrus-Elias, and Carter-Kovalchuk. Mills, Pelley, Zharkov, and Boulton are all capable killers too if we need them.
Like its been said, we're far more aggressive on the puck carrier this year. This team has been too passive in past years. Plus it doesn't hurt having our top players out there too.
Dave Barr has really helped us out in this regard.
Hard work, solid goaltending, Carter, reverse Murphy's law (i.e. Anything that can go right, will), and statistical anomaly.
IMO, the PK hasn't really been that exceptional, and you'll see it revert back to the mean shortly. Maybe the Isles will score 3 PP goals on this home + home or something.
