Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson (C) is helped off the ice by teammates Chris Phillips (L) and Marc Methot after getting injured during the third period of their NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers in Ottawa February 21, 2013Reuters
While the NHL doesn't release these numbers publicly, most of the 30 NHL teams track their man-games lost to injury during the season and provide them to local media.
Here are the team totals, sorted by man-games lost per game, as of their most recent game.
The only team that's not providing man-games lost information right now is the Sharks. If those figures become available, they'll be added to this list.
Teams | GP | MGL | MGL/G | |
1 | Detroit | 33 | 186 | 5.64 |
2 | Florida | 34 | 163 | 4.79 |
3 | Ottawa | 33 | 158 | 4.79 |
4 | Philadelphia | 32 | 133 | 4.16 |
5 | Washington | 33 | 107 | 3.24 |
6 | Winnipeg | 34 | 109 | 3.21 |
7 | Carolina | 31 | 92 | 2.97 |
8 | Columbus | 33 | 92 | 2.79 |
9 | Colorado | 31 | 81 | 2.61 |
10 | Phoenix | 32 | 83 | 2.59 |
11 | Buffalo | 33 | 85 | 2.58 |
12 | Calgary | 31 | 78 | 2.52 |
13 | Vancouver | 33 | 83 | 2.52 |
14 | Edmonton | 32 | 80 | 2.50 |
15 | NY Rangers | 32 | 80 | 2.50 |
16 | Montreal | 32 | 77 | 2.41 |
17 | Chicago | 32 | 66 | 2.06 |
18 | Toronto | 34 | 70 | 2.06 |
19 | Dallas | 32 | 64 | 2.00 |
20 | Tampa Bay | 33 | 62 | 1.88 |
21 | St. Louis | 32 | 58 | 1.81 |
22 | NY Islanders | 33 | 56 | 1.70 |
23 | New Jersey | 33 | 53 | 1.61 |
24 | Nashville | 33 | 51 | 1.55 |
25 | Minnesota | 31 | 45 | 1.45 |
26 | Anaheim | 32 | 37 | 1.16 |
27 | Los Angeles | 32 | 37 | 1.16 |
28 | Pittsburgh | 34 | 29 | 0.85 |
29 | Boston | 31 | 19 | 0.61 |
30 | San Jose | 31 | N/A | N/A |
Average | 32.4 | 80.5 | 2.47 |
In a typical 82-game season, teams generally average roughly around three man-games lost per team, a figure that teams would likely reach due to season-ending injuries if there were more games played.
What we haven't seen, however, is an epidemic of injuries due to the condensed schedule, as these numbers don't appear that far off the norm.
You'll note that most of the teams on the low end here are playoff teams, and that's not a coincidence. There's a correlation between man-games lost and points percentage every year that's pretty significant.
And that makes what Detroit and Ottawa are doing all the more impressive.
The effect of man-games lost to injury
Generally speaking, NHL teams with fewer man-games lost to injury (left hand side of the chart) have better records (higher on chart). Teams need roughly 0.55 points per game to make the postseason.