Rank the Top 10 PP Tandems in the League

Rank the Top 10 PPs tandems in the league next year.

For example, Ottawa's D tandem is Gonchar/Karlsson, Montreal's is Subban/Markov, Toronto's is Phaneuf/Kaberle and so on.

So you're just looking at the 1st pairing defenceman? Do we factor in the rest of the lines?

I think Ottawa's will greatly improve, which is what the plan and hope is.

Washington's still money with Green, and LA has Doughty/Johnson.

Vancouver now has Hamhuis, Ballard, Ehrhoff, Bieksa, and Edler.

Pittsburgh still has Letang and Goligoski and now Martin.

Detroit with Lidstom is still a threat.

Nashville and Weber/Suter, Buffalo with Myers/Leopold...

Lots of good pairings that should be able to put the puck on net.

Just first pairings to make it a little easier. It's a tough question for sure.

Karlsson/Gonchar!!

I'm not putting in teams that use forwards on the PP (Washington, San Jose), I find that unfair in this equation.

1.Lidstrom/Rafalski
2.Suter/Weber
3.Keith/Campbell
4.Doughty/JJ
5.Gonchar/Karlsson ( )
6.Pronger/Timonen
7.Markov/Subban
8.Phaneuf/Kaberle
9.Pitkanen/Babchuk
10.Ballard/Ehrhoff
11.Letang/Gologoski


That's my top 11 - I think...it's really quite hard to do though and I'm sure I missed teams/tandems along the way.

SensGirl11 wrote:Karlsson/Gonchar!!

I'm trying to keep it as unbiased as possible, but if things turn out well, they could definitely be the best.

SpezDispenser wrote:I'm not putting in teams that use forwards on the PP (Washington, San Jose), I find that unfair in this equation.

1.Lidstrom/Rafalski
2.Suter/Weber
3.Keith/Campbell
4.Doughty/JJ
5.Gonchar/Karlsson ( )
6.Pronger/Timonen
7.Markov/Subban
8.Phaneuf/Kaberle
9.Pitkanen/Babchuk
10.Ballard/Ehrhoff
11.Letang/Gologoski


That's my top 11 - I think...it's really quite hard to do though and I'm sure I missed teams/tandems along the way.

Interesting. I don't think I could rank them as I don't know number 1 PP units besides ours and our division...even then I'd probably get it wrong. This looks pretty good to me though. I do however, think that Gonchar and Karlsson could even move up this list. We just don't know yet. Time will tell.

I wouldn't put Gonchar/Karlsson up very high because Karlsson has never played with Gonchar and he is entering his sophomore season.

On the other hand, what has LA done with their PP to rank them in the top-five?

Just for fun, here are last season's top-ranked power plays:
Anaheim: 26.1%
Washington: 25.6%
Vancouver: 24%
NY Rangers: 22.9%
Detroit: 22%
Minnesota: 21.8%
Philadelphia: 21.8%
Buffalo: 21.2%
Pittsburgh: 21.0%
Edmonton: 20.0%

That's the top-ten, and everyone else is below 20%, so that's a good cut-off point.

Detroit was 5th, so putting them at #1 when Lidstrom is a year older is questionable, at best. Buffalo is up there so Myer has to be in there, somewhere. Where's Vancouver's top pairing!

Interesting how Pittsburgh managed to get into the top-ten after chasing us in the bottom-three in the first half. Care to guess who turned that around?

wprager wrote:I wouldn't put Gonchar/Karlsson up very high because Karlsson has never played with Gonchar and he is entering his sophomore season.

On the other hand, what has LA done with their PP to rank them in the top-five?

Just for fun, here are last season's top-ranked power plays:
Anaheim: 26.1%
Washington: 25.6%
Vancouver: 24%
NY Rangers: 22.9%
Detroit: 22%
Minnesota: 21.8%
Philadelphia: 21.8%
Buffalo: 21.2%
Pittsburgh: 21.0%
Edmonton: 20.0%

That's the top-ten, and everyone else is below 20%, so that's a good cut-off point.

Detroit was 5th, so putting them at #1 when Lidstrom is a year older is questionable, at best. Buffalo is up there so Myer has to be in there, somewhere. Where's Vancouver's top pairing!

Interesting how Pittsburgh managed to get into the top-ten after chasing us in the bottom-three in the first half. Care to guess who turned that around?

Geez, how the heck did the Oilers, Wild and Sabres and Rangers get in there. I would expect a drop from those teams because Ottawa amongst others have gotten a whole lot better.

A couple of one-man tandems to consider. Mike "The Greener" Green and Mark "The Chocolatier" Streit.

You can't really rank a defense tandem based on the PP efficiency of the team though.
Anaheim got Niedermayer + the best line in the league
Detroit's PP relies a lot on Holmstrom in front of the net and Datsyuk's eyes behind the head
Vancouver's is the Sedins show
etc.

marakh wrote:You can't really rank a defense tandem based on the PP efficiency of the team though.
Anaheim got Niedermayer + the best line in the league
Detroit's PP relies a lot on Holmstrom in front of the net and Datsyuk's eyes behind the head
Vancouver's is the Sedins show
etc.

Of course not. But it's one way to double-check things. If the top PP is not in your top-five then you double check. There are anomalies, of course, but you investigate them.

wprager wrote:

marakh wrote:You can't really rank a defense tandem based on the PP efficiency of the team though.
Anaheim got Niedermayer + the best line in the league
Detroit's PP relies a lot on Holmstrom in front of the net and Datsyuk's eyes behind the head
Vancouver's is the Sedins show
etc.

Of course not. But it's one way to double-check things. If the top PP is not in your top-five then you double check. There are anomalies, of course, but you investigate them.

The right way to do it is to click on the Stats tab on nhl.com and look up the PPP leaders for defensemen. That should give you an idea of how to find the best tandem.

PKC wrote:
The right way to do it is to click on the Stats tab on nhl.com and look up the PPP leaders for defensemen. That should give you an idea of how to find the best tandem.

I think there might be too many intangibles to forecast next season based on last. Karlsson being here a full year, Gonchar's addition, Phaneuf being there a full year, Subban, etc. etc.

PKC wrote:

wprager wrote:

marakh wrote:You can't really rank a defense tandem based on the PP efficiency of the team though.
Anaheim got Niedermayer + the best line in the league
Detroit's PP relies a lot on Holmstrom in front of the net and Datsyuk's eyes behind the head
Vancouver's is the Sedins show
etc.

Of course not. But it's one way to double-check things. If the top PP is not in your top-five then you double check. There are anomalies, of course, but you investigate them.

The right way to do it is to click on the Stats tab on nhl.com and look up the PPP leaders for defensemen. That should give you an idea of how to find the best tandem.

There is no single, "right" way. You try to arrive at your conclusion using different means and you prove that you are on the right track if you see a convergence. It's the same as estimating project effort/duration.