It’s a funny thing – icing, which we normally associate with a weak defensive team desperately trying to clear the puck – does not seem to correlate very well with that image. The table below shows the percentage of icings that were committed by a given team. Edmonton has the best record – just 41.7% of icings in its games were by the Oilers – while New Jersey and Nashville find themselves at the other end of the spectrum.
Team | IceA | IceF | Pct |
edm | 239 | 171 | 41.7 |
pit | 237 | 170 | 41.8 |
buf | 235 | 176 | 42.8 |
ott | 250 | 199 | 44.3 |
tor | 261 | 211 | 44.7 |
bos | 253 | 219 | 46.4 |
ana | 209 | 183 | 46.7 |
cgy | 269 | 240 | 47.2 |
det | 209 | 187 | 47.2 |
mon | 222 | 200 | 47.4 |
col | 212 | 195 | 47.9 |
la | 198 | 190 | 49.0 |
car | 230 | 222 | 49.1 |
chi | 220 | 213 | 49.2 |
dal | 191 | 186 | 49.3 |
cls | 227 | 226 | 49.9 |
van | 215 | 216 | 50.1 |
nyr | 244 | 246 | 50.2 |
pho | 218 | 220 | 50.2 |
was | 218 | 224 | 50.7 |
tb | 211 | 232 | 52.4 |
phi | 210 | 236 | 52.9 |
stl | 224 | 255 | 53.2 |
sj | 199 | 227 | 53.3 |
min | 220 | 262 | 54.4 |
nj | 198 | 236 | 54.4 |
nyi | 213 | 261 | 55.1 |
nsh | 206 | 261 | 55.9 |
atl | 200 | 260 | 56.5 |
fla | 166 | 280 | 62.8 |
Here are the players who’ve taken the most faceoffs following an icing call – “Def” means defensive zone draw; in other words, Stephen Weiss led the league in taking draws following his own team icing the puck:
Player | Off | Player | Def |
Sidney Crosby | 100 | Stephen Weiss | 75 |
Mikko Koivu | 87 | Tomas Plekanec | 74 |
Antoine Vermette | 87 | Daymond Langkow | 70 |
Jonathan Toews | 87 | Steven Reinprecht | 70 |
Henrik Sedin | 83 | Nik Antropov | 68 |
John Tavares | 81 | Paul Stastny | 67 |
Paul Stastny | 77 | Kyle Brodziak | 67 |
David Krejci | 77 | John Madden | 67 |
Vincent Lecavalier | 73 | David Backes | 66 |
Scott Gomez | 72 | Jay McClement | 66 |
Stephen Weiss | 71 | Mike Richards | 65 |
Jason Arnott | 71 | Martin Hanzal | 65 |
Joe Thornton | 71 | Samuel Pahlsson | 65 |
Travis Zajac | 70 | Henrik Sedin | 63 |
Nik Antropov | 69 | Mikko Koivu | 62 |
Matt Stajan | 68 | Jason Arnott | 61 |
Jeff Carter | 68 | Ryan Kesler | 61 |
Matt Duchene | 65 | Rich Peverley | 61 |
Ryan Kesler | 64 | Marcel Goc | 61 |
Olli Jokinen | 64 | Matt Stajan | 60 |
Derek Roy | 64 | Jeff Carter | 60 |
Jason Spezza | 64 | Chris Drury | 60 |
Niklas Backstrom | 63 | John Tavares | 59 |
Patrice Bergeron | 63 | Travis Zajac | 59 |
Shawn Horcoff | 63 | Niklas Backstrom | 59 |
The makeup of the two lists isn't very surprising. The guys who go on after a change are offensive forwards; the guys who are stuck taking the draw after their own team ices the puck are defensive centermen.