East vs West - Shootout games
 

I don't know if it's an early season trend that will correct itself as time goes by, but there is an amazing imbalance between the number of games that ends up in a shootout in the East vs the West. So far, only three games in the East ended up this way, with the Bruins being involved in two of those games, while every team but six went at least twice in the shootout in the West.

How can this be explained? Can it be explained at all? Or, as I first stated, is it an anomaly that will correct itself over time?

Nevertheless, if that situation last a little while, and if your league awards a point for a SO loss, you might think about it when you have to decide between a goalie that plays in the East and one that plays in the West...


But then again... does anyone have an explanation for this??

Im sure it will even out a bit, but you could look at the fact that there are a lot of teams in the East letting in a lot of goals early on. In terms of goals against per game, 6 of the bottom 7 are from the East. More goals means less chance of it being a closer game.

The west is more defensive with better goaltending? Leads to lower scoring games which are more likely to go to a shootout, pretty much what robot said above.

That would be my guess at least.....I'd imagine the numbers will move closer to even as the season goes on, but it's an interesting trend. I wonder what the numbers look like over the last few years.