Examining the Power Play

One of the rule changes made to college hockey this season was the new rule that all powerplays would begin in the attacking zone. The theory was that by starting in the offensive zone, it would be easier for teams to score and generate more goals. As a whole, I kind of liked the rule, but did it actually make the difference? I cruchned the overall powerplay statistics for the WCHA and CCHA for last year, as well as the previous four seasons to compare. Here were the results...

2008-2009

WCHA: 403/2261......17.8%

CCHA: 390/2558.......15.2%

Total: 793/4819........16.4%

2007-2008

WCHA: 290/1829......15.9%

CCHA: 444/2565......17.3%

Total: 734/4393.......16.7%

2006-2007

WCHA: 400/2205....18.1%

CCHA: 477/2848....16.7%

Total: 877/5053......17.3%

2005-2006

WCHA:430/2309....18.6%

CCHA: 495/2952....16.8%

Total: 925/5261......17.6%

2004-2005

WCHA: 435/2311...18.8%

CCHA: 535/2942....18.2%

Total:  970/5253.....18.5%

There's really not much of a difference. If anything, powerplay percentage has continued to drop pretty steadily over the past couple of years. Part of that could be college hockey losing more top unit powerplay guys to the pros, so maybe this new rule stemmed the tide a little bit, but for the most part, it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.