Home, sweet home for Pens

One reason the Penguins were the NHL's best home team was that they earned 199 power plays in their 41 games at Mellon Arena while allowing 170. They gave up 187 advantages on the road, 8 more than they received.

Even-Strength Goals Margin        +23

Evgeni Malkin had 30 of his 47 goals at even strength, putting him among the League leaders. Only 40 of his 107 points came on the power play.
   
Special Teams Goal Margin        +5       

Not surprisingly for a team with so much firepower, the Penguins did very well on the power play -- especially at home, where they were second in the NHL with 46 goals and a 23.1 percent success rate.

Goals by defensemen            33   

The Penguins got 12 goals each from Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney; that's not likely to happen this season with Whitney out following foot surgery.

Overtime Record             Total: 8-4-4  | OT: 1-4  | SO: 7-4

Rookie defenseman Kris Letang had just 6 goals in regulation play, but was among the League leaders in the shootout by going 5-for-8, including back-to-back game-deciding goals in early December.
   
Times Scored First     40, Record 29-6-5       

The Penguins were good when they scored first -- but exceptional by NHL standards when they didn't. They were 18-21-3 when the opponent scored first, tying them with Anaheim for the second-highest winning percentage (.429) when the opposition got the first goal.

Best 07-08 Number             19-5-5

Penguins' record in games played on Saturdays and Sundays. They were 12-4-4 on Saturdays and 7-1-1 on Sundays but were only five games over .500 on the other five days of the week.

Worst 07-08 Number          46.1

Percentage of faceoffs won by the Penguins, who were 30th among the 30 NHL teams in winning draws. One good sign: Sidney Crosby won 51.4 percent of his faceoffs, a big jump from his first two NHL seasons.
   
Scheduling

The Penguins have a good chance to get off to a fast start -- after opening in Ottawa, they play their next five games at Mellon Arena. But finishing strong could be tough; they play four of their last five games on the road in an eight-day period.

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