Picking up from last year, here’s the first edition of the Special Teams Index for this 2007-2008 National Hockey League regular season.

The low-down: Add together a team’s power-play percentage and penalty-kill percentage, and you get their Special Teams Index number. The bigger the number, the better the ranking. It’s a quick-and-dirty snapshot of how effective a club is on both sides of odd-man situations. PP and PK don’t completely determine success in the NHL, but their big factors, so this Index presents a composite statistical measure.

Unlike last year, I will not be cobbling this together every week. I’m kicking around doing it at the end of every month; or else, whenever I feel like it. We’ll see.

Of note in the early going: The Devils are uncharacteristically dead last in PK — is that 9-game season-opening road-trip the only reason?… The Canadiens have picked up right where they left off last season with the league’s top-ranked PP — along with a lower-ranking PK. That’s the same combo that kept them out of the playoff dance last year… The Blue Jackets are off to their best-ever start, and that No. 1 PK has everything to do with it.