>According to the NCAA, each penalty, regardless of length, that results in a
>team having a numerical on-ice advantage, counts as one power play. The
>number of power plays being equal to the number of power-play goals that
>could have been scored.

Thus, a minor penalty can never create more than one power play (since
you can only score one goal on it).

>For instance, a team which has a full two-minute, 5-on-3 power play, would
>have two power plays statistically since it could have scored two power play
>goals (I believe this differs from the NHL, which would consider this to be
>one power play).

I believe the NHL now also considers this two power plays. I know that was
the rule we followed in the IHL (RIP), and we followed the NHL rules.

>One second of power-play time constitutes a power play (and I've had many
>coaches complain about that, even though they don't complain when it helps
>their penalty kill numbers).

Yes. When they don't score on a three-second power play, they complain about
going 0-for-1. When they don't score on a five-minute power play, they don't
complain so much. :-)

I haven't seen a lot of measurements of goals by penalty time
(although I've done some myself in past year). What I have done leads
me to believe that the
ranking of teams would not change very much.

The only thing that would cause a team's ranking to change is if they had
an abnormally high or low average power-play length.

While we're on the subject, what exactly is "combined special teams" supposed
to measure?

John

--
   John Edwards - Professional Stats Geek - [log in to unmask]
                Carleton Football - Undefeated since 1998
The opinions expressed are mine alone, because everybody else says I'm weird.