Hockeymetrics: Stars By The Numbers

And this may or may not become a regular feature with my Hockeymetrics-themed posts just because these are numbers that are fun to talk about.

I would have called it Hockey Numbers to Chew On For Fun, Even Yucks. But HNTCOFFEY doesn't have the same ring to it as, say, TROT COFFEY.

So we'll stick with By The Numbers for right now.

1:29 - That's how long the Dallas Stars penalty killing unit was able to hold out before surrendering a Jason Arnott second period power play goal in the first game of the 2010-11 campaign.

10:00 - How long the Stars penalty killing unit was able to hold out this year before surrendering a power play goal to noted Stars killer, Andrew Brunette, in the second period of last night's game. Dallas was able to kill off all 7:40 worth of the penalties they took in the opener on Friday.

More numbers to chew on after the jump.

180 - The Stars GF/60 rating for 4-on-4 play after Friday's opener. The Blackhawks fourth power play of the night was cut short by 20 seconds thanks to a Marian Hossa slash on Steve Ott. And during that 20 second span of ensuing 4-on-4 play, Jamie Benn scored in the second period to make it 2-0.

31.304 - The Stars GF/60 rating for 4-on-4 play after last night's game. Obviously, nobody expected the Stars to keep up this torrid pace, and they fell back to Earth when they failed to score during a 4-on-4 segment that encompassed 1:35.

8 17 - The number of points Alex Goligoski has scored since that "horrible" trade last February that sent James Neal to Pittsburgh. Which matches the same number of points Neal has accumulated for Pittsburgh since the trade.

Both players each scored a goal in their first game of the season and picked up an assist in the next game.

Which, once again, goes to show the trade hasn't been anywhere close to horrible from a Stars perspective. And I intend on hammering this point home as long as certain respected members of the hockey blogging community to suggest it was a horrible trade.

48:51 - Another number that Goligoski figures into as he's the team leader in ice time after the home and home set with the Blackhawks.

I know what you're thinking here. Of course he'll have a higher amount of ice time than anyone else since the Stars played from behind for much of last night's game.

Point taken. Until you consider...

20:26 - ...which would have led everyone (Blackhawks included) in ice time Friday night if not for Chicago's Norris Trophy candidate, Duncan Keith, logging 21:04 of ice time.

-2 - The Stars current goal differential against the Central Division. Last year, the goal differential never entered negative territory finishing with a +16.

0 - The number of games Krys Barch has played in this year.

To be sure, he sat out the opener last year, and then played in 5 games in October starting with the second game of the year on Long Island. Whether or not this will be a harbinger of things to come remains to be seen, but I found his absence intriguing considering how much of a lineup staple he was towards the end of last season.

45.83% - Vernon Fiddler's faceoff percentage through the first two games. Not great. But better than...

35.29% - ...Mike Ribeiro's.

No further comment necessary.