While there's no doubt that special teams and goaltending can take you deep into the playoffs, a smooth transition from regular season dominance to playoff dominance is elusive. Consider the table below, which summarizes Strachan's combined PP+PK metric for the last two seasons. Of the last four finalists, only one (EDM) had a combined top ten special teams rank by the end of the season. The top five had a decidedly mixed record, with only one per season making it to the third round. Rewind further and you'll see the Ducks and Devils had poor/mediocre regular season power plays (although they both topped the league in PK). Jersey's combined ranking that year was 15th. Deadline acquisitions, along with the X factor that gets teams to overcome in clutch situations have more of a positive impact on performance than regular season special teams record. If I could identify and bottle this X factor, I'd sell it on Ebay, leak it into the Kanata water supply or maybe bet the farm on the next Carolina-Edmonton or Calgary-Tampa Stanley Cup final.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7gGdQ5mJcPf1KYwuJ5rojd6kITwVp3bUxY4PPmdF_B2fYHfH3LowXDpv9mlHhKj6xxu0dG-q5JAkZIXRw3_q4W-JRkYnWInoKefvj_qGNC9lw7fNA1llwyZGa2RUlWdUOoOKwaA/s320/SpecTeams.jpg)
(click to enlarge)
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