Results Comparison: The Explanation

This will be an ongoing look at the Leafs current season compared to the last two years. I got the idea from RAWK a Liverpool FC forum that has run similar comparisons over the past couple of seasons. There are two comparisons, one based on the equivalent fixtures from last season and one based on the game number.

The equivalent fixtures comparison looks at the games based on the same game from last year. So this year's opening trio of games that went Ottawa - Home, Ottawa - Away, and Montreal - Home are compared to last year's first game at home against Ottawa, first game away to Ottawa, and first game at home against Montreal. The order of comparison is based on this season's schedule.

The one problem is that because of this terrible unbalanced schedule the Leafs do not play all of the same opponents each year. For the Western Conference part of things they match up as follows:
                 

The comparison based on the game number matches game # 1 of last season with this game # 1 of this season, # 2 with #2, and so on. I'll have both up in the next day or so including a look at games 11-20 over the past two years.

The glossary for the tables is as follows:

TGF - Total Goals For, TGA - Total Goals Against, GD - Goal Differential, ESGF - Even Strength Goals For, ESGA - Even Strength Goals Against, PPG - Power Play Goals, PPA - Power Play Attempts, PP% - Power Play Percentage, SPK - Successful Penalty Kills, PKA - Penalty Kill Attempts, PK% - Penalty Kill Percentage, STDIF - Special Teams Differential (PPG For minus PKG against minus SHGA against plus SHGF), SHGF - Short-handed Goals For, SHGA - Short-handed Goals Against.