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Sports

Penguins seeking more power-play success

By National Hockey League
Published | Updated

There may not be a lot of room for improvement in Pittsburgh, but getting the power play revved up is one goal for the Penguins this coming season.

Advantage Margin: -1

The Penguins did a good job of drawing power plays no matter where they played, but allowed 170 opposition advantages on the road, a total exceeded only by St. Louis.

Special Teams Goal Margin: +3

It's hard to believe that a team with players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin can struggle on the power play, but the Penguins were just 19th and scored only 56 goals. At least they cut their shorthanded goals allowed from 13 to 8. The penalty-killers were second in the NHL on the road (85.3 percent).  

Goals by defensemen: 35

Only 13 of those goals were scored by players who are returning this season. The Penguins hope the addition of Paul Martin will offset the departure of Sergei Gonchar, who led the blueliners with 11 goals.    

Overtime Record

Total: 14-5-2 • OT: 6-5 • SO: 8-2

Sidney Crosby was the NHL's top gun in the shootout, going 8-for-10. As a group, the Penguins scored 15 times in 29 tries (.517) while allowing only six goals in 29 attempts (.793). Backup goalie Brent Johnson was 2-0 and stopped all six attempts he faced.

Times Scored First: 41 • Record: 28-9-4

Pittsburgh turned 22 first-goals at home into 17 wins, but was just 11-6-2 in the 19 road games in which it scored first.

Best 09-10 Number: 11-2-3

Pittsburgh's record in games tied after the second period. The Penguins won 11 of the 16 games in which they were even after 40 minutes despite scoring and allowing 77 goals in the third period.

Worst 09-10 Number: 13.4

Pittsburgh's power-play percentage on the road, 27th among the 30 teams in the NHL. The Penguins had 164 power-play chances on the road, among the most in the NHL, but turned them into only 22 goals.

Scheduling

The Penguins open the new Consol Energy Center on Oct. 7 with a game against Philadelphia, then take to the great outdoors when they host the 2011 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1 against Washington. The end of the season may be tough -- four of the last five games are away from home.