As fanatical as I am about sports, I’m not much for the obsessive number-crunching that afflicts others. I’ll take the stats as they come, but I can live without viewing the game through a decimal-point prism.

That said, I’ve liked the idea of compiling a measuring stick for special teams play in the National Hockey League. Now that obstruction has more or less been stamped out, power play and penalty kill units are a bigger part of the game than ever; and so, a capsule look at how each team’s odd-man play performs is handy.

Enter the Special Teams Index. I’m putting it together the basic way: By adding a team’s power-play conversion percentage number with the same team’s penalty-kill success number. There are other options. STATS’ formula takes an admirable stab at incorporating shorthanded goals scored and allowed; I feel that adds needless complexity by weighing a factor (shorthanded goals) that isn’t really prioritized by most NHL teams. Adding percentage points is fairly simplistic, but it more or less does the job.

So, here they are, through last night. It’s an ideal time to present this, as today (as with most Sundays during the Fall) is a light schedule day. I aim to update this weekly, in case anyone’s interested.