Examining the Detroit Red Wings numbers

Advantage Margin: -10
One reason the Wings had such a big home-road disparity: They gave opponents only 188 power-play chances at Joe Louis Arena, but had to kill off 220 chances (against only 189 power plays) away from home.

Even-Strength Goals Margin: +55
No Wing who played more than 30 games had a minus rating. Detroit’s top six scorers all were at least plus-12, and team scoring leader Pavel Datsyuk had 22 of his 27 goals and 55 of his 87 points at even strength. 

Special Teams Goal Margin: +6
For a team that tied for the most points in the League, the Wings’ special teams were pretty ordinary. The power play generated only five more PPGs than the Wings gave up. The penalty-killers were superb at home, allowing only 22 goals in 188 chances; their 88.3 percent kill rate was second in the League.

Goals by defensemen: 35
The Wings got double-figure goals from Nicklas Lidstrom (13-49-62 and Mathieu Schneider (11). They hope to replace Schneider (signed with Anaheim) with Brian Rafalski (8-47-55 with New Jersey).

Goals by forwards: 217
No Steve Yzerman, no Brendan Shanahan, no problem. No one had more than Henrik Zetterberg’s 33 goals, but the Wings got career bests from Tomas Holmstrom (30) and Daniel Cleary (20), and 11 forwards hit double figures.

Overtime Record: 5-5-8 (OT: 3-5, SO: 2-8)
Dominik Hasek’s 2.05 goals-against average didn’t help him much in shootouts. He lost five of six and stopped only 8 of the 16 shots he faced. Datsyuk (5-for-10) had half of the Wings’ shootout goals.

Times Scored First/Record: 43 (Record: 35-5-4)
The Wings scored first in 24 of their 41 home games and got at least a point in every one (20-0-4). Overall, their .791 winning percentage when scoring first was second in the NHL, behind only San Jose.

Best 06-07 Number: 98
Goals scored by the Red Wings in the third period, the most in the league and a big part of the reason Detroit won nine games when trailing after two periods. The Wings outscored their opponents 98-64 in the final 20 minutes.

Worst 06-07 Number: 68
Power-play goals by the Wings in 2006-07, down from 102 in ’05-06. The Wings fell from first in the NHL (22.1 percent) in 2005-06 to 21st (17.1 percent) last season.

Scheduling:
The Wings get a quick chance to avenge their playoff loss to Anaheim when they host the Ducks in their season opener. They also have a chance to get off to a fast start with four of their first five games at home. Fourteen of the Wings’ last 15 games are against division rivals, including four each with Nashville and Columbus.