Power play puck luck – Expect more points from these eight players

Sean Allen, Special to ESPN.comDec 12, 2023, 04:00 PM ET

CloseSean Allen is a fantasy analyst for ESPN.com. He was the 2008 and 2009 Fantasy Sports Writers Association Hockey Writer of the Year. You can tweet him @seanard.

One of the issues with using power-play time as a “positive” indicator for fantasy assessment is that more of it doesn’t always equal a positive outcome for fantasy hockey.

Take that argument to its illogical extreme: A player who spends a full two minutes on the ice each time his team gets a power play isn’t getting you any fantasy points. The fantasy points come when the power play is ended prematurely by the team on the advantage scoring a goal — and hopefully with your player getting in on the action.

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If ending the power play is the ultimate goal for the team on the advantage, then it stands to reason that fewer power-play minutes could be an indicator of more positive outcomes — if the team manages to score on the advantage with some frequency.

As you can maybe glean at this point, there is some circular arguments that can be made here. Is more power-play time good for fantasy? Is less power-play time good for fantasy? Is there another way to answer this question? Is there something we can look at aside from power-play time as an indicator of opportunity?

Let me jump on that last question with a resounding, “I think so.” And I’m here to pitch you on it.

Different teams have differing amounts of power-play time afforded to them across the season. This is affected by how often they draw penalties and how successful they are at ending the power plays with a goal.

The range is wide already. When looking at it from a big picture perspective, we can add up all the power-play time spent on the ice collectively by skaters for each team. Right now, the team with the most time is the Colorado Avalanche with a sum total of 868…

Source link : https://www.espn.com/fantasy/hockey/story/_/id/39099146/power-play-puck-luck-bounce-back-alex-ovechkin-brandon-montour

Author : Sean Allen

Publish date : 2023-12-12 21:24:21

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