Note: This piece was also co-authored by Prashanth (@iyer_prashanth), JJ (@JJfromKansas) and Asmean (@mean_63). You can find more of her work at Hockey-Graphs.com. Tableau Visuals were created by Sean Tierney (@SeanTierneyTSS) and the PK infograph was create by Mike Fail (@mikeFAIL).
When Ken Holland announced his interest in re-signing both Darren Helm and Drew Miller, the conversation inevitably turned to one of their much lauded strength: penalty killing. While we've made light all season of the near-mythical penalty-killing abilities conferred upon Helm and Miller by the Detroit press, we've been able to recognize two general truisms about penalty killing:
- No single person (outside of the goalie, perhaps) is responsible for the success or failure of the penalty kill.