The Red Wings Historic Power Play

After adding another three power play goals against the Florida Panthers, ESPN play-by-play announcer Bob Wischusen commented “you can’t have a power play be more on right now than the Wings”.

It’s hard to argue with that statement. After last night’s game, the Wings power play is clicking at 50% over the last 10 games, having scored 17 goals on 34 opportunities. As noted by Dimitri Filipovic of the PDOCast, that’s more power play goals than the Ducks, Kings, and Islanders have scored this season.

For those of you that have followed my work you knew I would have to dig into this to see where this power play and this current 10-game stretch ranks in franchise history and in recent NHL history. Of note, power play stats are only available back to 1977-1978 on the NHL website.

Right now, the Wings PP is 2nd in the league at 29.6% and the underlying metrics are unbelievable courtesy of Stathletes’ Meghan Chayka

Data does not include 1/16 game against FLA

Furthermore, the Wings’ 29.6% conversion rate would be the best mark in franchise history…by a lot.

Keying in on just this recent 10-game stretch, this is best power play success rate over a 10-game stretch in franchise history, ranking narrowly ahead of a stretch they had earlier this season.

Just stop and thinking about that. Two of the top-five distinct stretches in franchise history have come this season. Better than the 02-03 team that had a power play featuring Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan, Nick Lidstrom, and Tomas Holmstrom. Bananas.

Widening the lens to league-wide, we see that over the last 11+ seasons, the Wings’ current 10-game stretch ranks 3rd best in power play conversion rate.

The Wings are on a historic run right now that’s elevating them into the playoff race. It will be fun to see how long they can continue this epic run. The end certainly doesn’t seem to be in sight as they are generating quality chances at an extremely high rate (11.14 xGF/60 on the PP over the last 10 games per Evolving-Hockey) so let’s enjoy the fireworks!