Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 1st Half 2023-24

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins reached the halfway point of the 2023-24 AHL season this weekend so I wanted to take a look at the stats and see how they are shaping up so far. I had lofty goals at the beginning of the season, I had spreadsheets where I was manually tracking the data to get information like shots, goals, assists, goals for, and goals against separated out as even strength, power play, penalty kill, empty net, and extra attacker. However, about a quarter of the way into the season I got overwhelmed, made a mistake that I couldn’t figure out without starting from scratch, and just gave up. So unfortunately all I have access to is data that is publicly available on the AHL website. I have been sick and am a bit behind, so all information used is as of Sunday January 14, 2024.

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Team Stats

The WBS Pens currently have a 19-12-5 record (18-1-5-12) which is 4th in the Atlantic division, 6th in the Eastern conference, and 13th in the AHL. They have been outscored 102 to 104 so far this season. While they post shot totals during the games, they don’t have a running tally available on the AHL stats so I can’t really say what their puck possession looks like. At 2.83 goals for per game they have the 26th offense in the league whereas their 2.89 goals against per game is the 11th defense in the AHL. This leaves them with a 49.5 GF% which is 17th.

On the power play WBS has gone 25 for 143 at a 17.5 PP% which is 23rd in the league. They have given up 5 shorthanded goals against. On the penalty kill they have stopped 122 of 143 at an 85.3 PK% which is 5th in the AHL. They have scored 3 shorthanded goals for.

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Pittsburgh Penguins 2nd Quarter 2023-24

The Pittsburgh Penguins have now played 41 games, meaning we are halfway through the 2023-24 NHL season. We can compare their current performance to what we saw in the 1st Quarter to see if they have been improving. The standard team data and basic goaltending stats comes from the NHL website while advanced stats and 5-on-5 skater data come from Evolving Hockey.

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Team Stats

Through the first half of the season the Pens have gone 20-15-6 (17-3-6-15). They are currently 6th in the Metropolitan division, 10th in the Eastern conference, and 18th in the NHL. Their power play has gone 19 for 137 at a 13.9 PP% which is 26th in the NHL. They have given up 5 shorthanded goals against. Their penalty kill has stopped 103 of 125 for an 82.4 PK% which is 10th in the NHL. They have only scored 2 shorthanded goals for. They have won 1317 of 2395 faceoffs for a league leading 55.0 FO%.

Overall the team has outscored opponents 124 to 112, outshot them 1380 to 1264, led attempts 2752 to 2496, and even led xG 159 to 133. Offensively they are 20th with a 2.99 GF60 but are 4th with a 33.3 SF60, 4th with a 66.3 CF60, and 2nd with a 3.83 xGF60. Defensively they are 7th with a 2.70 GA60 but 21st with a 30.5 SA60, 22nd with a 45.0 FA60, and 16th with a 3.21 xGA60. The offensive Thru% of 50.1 is 16th in the league and the defensive Thru% of 50.6 is 17th in the NHL. Their 6.3 FSh% is 27th in the league while their 95.5 CSv% is 6th in the NHL.