2013-14 First Half Review: By the Numbers

Friday night in Utica marked Game #38, the official halfway point of the 2013-14 season.  Before kicking off the next 38 games, let’s take a look at the Devils’ progress so far this season:

Record: 22-11-3-2, 49 points.  2nd place in Northeast Division, 4th place in Eastern Conference, 7th in AHL

Home: 12-6-2-0
Away: 10-5-1-2

Team Leaders (Top 3):

Goals: Joe Whitney (16); Reid Boucher*/Mike Sislo (10); Scott Timmins (9)
Assists: Joe Whitney (20); Kelly Zajac (17); Scott Timmins (13)
Points: Joe Whitney (36); Mike Sislo/Scott Timmins/Kelly Zajac (22); Reid Boucher* (18)
+/-: Reece Scarlett (+11); Dan Kelly/Seth Helgeson/Corbin McPherson (+10); Mike Sislo/Scott Timmins (+9)
Penalty Minutes: Seth Helgeson (63); Dan Kelly (53); Chris McKelvie (47)
Power Play Goals: Joe Whitney (5); Reece Scarlett (4); 2 others with 3
Power Play Assists: Joe Whitney (11); Kelly Zajac (7); Reid Boucher (6)*
Shorthanded Goals: 4 tied with 1
Shorthanded Assists: 3 tied with 1
Game Winning Goals: 3 tied with 3
Shots on Goal: Joe Whitney (108); Harri Pesonen (80); Reid Boucher (69)*

Wins: Keith Kinkaid (15)
GAA: Keith Kinkaid (2.22)
Shutouts: Keith Kinkaid (4)
Save Percentage: Keith Kinkaid, .915

Team Stats (with league rankings):

Home Attendance: 2,906 (28th)
Penalty Minutes Average: 15.21 (21st)
Power Play: 16.8% (16th)
Penalty Kill: 81.6% (19th)
Goals For: 121, 3.18 (5th)
Goals Against: 97, 2.55 (5th)
Shots For: 28.26 (22nd)
Shots Against: 26.08 (2nd)

Comparing last year at this time to now?  Let’s take a look:

-Obviously in the win column.  7 more wins with 6 less shootout losses, for starters.

-Attendance is down by about 800, but last year there was the lockout to contend with.  And not a lot of big home dates early on.  But next weekend at home…and continuing play, and hopefully some better marketing, may change that.

-Much improved power play numbers, up 6 percent (I haven’t had to break out the power outage jokes in quite awhile).  But the penalty kill is down about 3 percent.

-The one thing I was worried about at the start of the season?  Goal production.  An increase of 22 goals over this time last season has calmed those fears down.  Goals against continues to improve over the years, as goals against has gone down by 8 thanks to Keith Kinkaid’s surge.

Second half begins tonight in Adirondack.  And the real test of whether this resurgence continues on begins.