waynes 153 points in 51 games
Who did Mario play with? You don't even know do you? And by 'you' I mean practically everyone. The only thing Mario had that Wayne had was Coffey, other than that he had guys named Brown, Quinn & Errey. I'd if that wasn't so And the Pens finished with 87 points in the standings, 32 points less then the Oilers dynasty team of 84.
if we want to start talking about how their situations may have affected their production in those big streaks.. compare how many PPs Lemieux had in 88-89 vs. Gretzky in 83-84..
ALL of Lemieux's big seasons are PP driven.
You can see it clearly between the crackdown season of 95-96 and getting many less PPs in 96-97 before he gave up and retired.
Coffey was a tremendous player at that time..
Regarding Greyzky and Lemieux. When it comes to chopping short-ish periods like half seasons the difference between them becomes marginal and you can legitimately make great cases for one being more impressive than the other on both sides. I'm in the camp that thinks Lemieux at his absolute best was in the same tier as Gretzky was. Which one you pick is matter of preference. Gretzky was at his best for substantially longer time which puts him ahead of Mario by sizeable margin. But on per game basis, there is little to nothing separating these two at their peak.
Thank you
I think most sensible people would agree with the following
Career; Gretzky >>> Lemieux
Prime; Gretzky > Lemieux
Peak; Gretzky = Lemieux
Arguably his best year 92-93 was clearly NOT powerplay driven; 47 goals 49 assists 96 points in 60 games at even strength which would be 134 in a full season numbers approaching that of Gretzky during his dynasty team years.
Thank you
I think most sensible people would agree with the following
Career; Gretzky >>> Lemieux
Prime; Gretzky > Lemieux
Peak; Gretzky = Lemieux
Here are the best 40 game stretches since 87-88 not including Gretzky & Lemieux. A total of 70 points or more has only be achieved 38 times since 1988. 66 & 99 have 12 all other players combined have 26. Jagr is next with 5 followed by Yzerman with 4 no one else has more than 2. Only the best 40 game stretch in each particular season is noted. The numbers were compiled from hockey-reference.com
38-50-88 Yzerman '89 games 16 to 55
38-48-86 Nicholls '89 first 40
19-66-85 Oates '91 games 21 to 60
35-47-82 Jagr '96 first 40 (96 in first 48)
49-31-80 Hull '91 game 27 to 66
40-38-78 Yzerman '90 games 27 to 66
28-50-78 Yzerman '93 games 44 to 83
37-38-75 LaFontaine '92 games 11 to 50
26-49-75 LaFontaine '93 first 40
48-26-74 Mogilny '93 games 28 to 67
23-51-74 Savard '87 first 40
43-30-73 Selanne '93 games 41 to 80
28-45-73 Jagr '01 last 40 (85 in last 45)
33-39-72 Jagr '97 games 14 to 53
33-39-72 Jagr '02 first 40
23-49-72 Jagr '00 games 32 to 71
33-39-72 Yzerman '88 games 21 to 60
29-43-72 Oates '93 games 19 to 58
20-52-72 Francis '96 first 40
38-33-71 Stevens '93 games 2 to 41
33-38-71 Stevens '92 games 12 to 51
28-43-71 Brown '89 games 4 to 34
25-46-71 Messier '90 games 39 to 78
19-51-71 Crosby '07 games 17 to 56 last time anyone had 70 or more within a season
30-40-70 Fedorov '94 first 40
28-42-70 Turgeon '93 games 25 to 64
honourable mention; Gilmour 69 in '93
Last time anyone had 70 or more points in a 40 game stretch over more than one season was Crosby;
28-44-72 from games 14 to 41 in '11 and then games 1 to 12 in '12
5 Best 40 games to start a season, ranking including 66 & 99 best are in quotations () for both since 88, [] including Gretzky since 82
1.(7)[13] 38-48-86 Nicholls '89 (172 point pace!)
2.(9)[15] 37-45-82 Yzerman '89
3.(10)[16] 35-47-82 Jagr '96
4.(13)[19] 26-49-75 LaFontaine '93
5.(15)[21] 23-51-74 Savard '87
5 Best 40 games to end a season
1.(10)[16] 19-62-81 Oates '91
2.(11)[17] 48-30-78 Hull '91
3.(12)[18] 27-50-77 Yzerman '93
4.(14)[20] 28-45-73 Jagr '01
5.(15)[21] 23-46-69 Messier '90
It's likely that Esposito, Orr, Dionne, Bossy, Kurri & Lafleur possibly others would have some half seasons squeezed in there too.
Other notables
Lindros best was 68 in '97
Thornton's best was 67 in '07
Ovechkin's best was 67 in '10
Forsberg's best was 66 in '03
Kovalchuk best was surprisingly 66 in '06
Geno's best was 64 in '12
Sakic's best was 63 in '01
Alfredsson best was 63 in '06
Kariya's best was 62 in '97
Kaner's best was 59 in '16
and 'McJesus' best so far was 52 last year but I'm sure he'll improve upon that.
Gretzky totally owned Lemieux almost every time they played one another. Clearly, one guy got unusually shaky facing the other one. I trust his subconscious.
I bet you my annual salary Jagr never scored 72 points in 40 games during 2002. That sounds more like 1999.
Are you sure these are correct? For example, in '88 (by which I assume you mean 1987-88), Gretzky played 38 games in the first half of the season, and 26 in the second half of the season.From those numbers we can extrapolate the best final 40 games as well;
Gretzky '82 42-52-104
Gretzky '83 41-60-101
Gretzky '84 44-44-88 (in 34 games, 103 pace)
Gretzky '85 31-62-93
Gretzky '86 24-88-112
Gretzky '87 22-63-85
Gretzky '88 22-67-89 three 5+ point games, 5 scoreless games
Gretzky '90 25-57-82 two 5+ point games, 5 scoreless games
Gretzky '91 25-50-75 two 5+ point games, 5 scoreless games
Gretzky '92 19-74-93 two 5+ point games, 1 scoreless games
Are you sure these are correct? For example, in '88 (by which I assume you mean 1987-88), Gretzky played 38 games in the first half of the season, and 26 in the second half of the season.
(Checks)
Well, he scored 63 points in the final 26 games in 1987-88. (In the first half, he had scored 86 points in 38 games.)
1991 is not correct, as well. That season (i.e, 1990-91) he scored 89 points in the final 39 games (he missed one game in the second half).
1992 should be 65 points in the final 39 games (he missed one).
It's amusing to think that if Gretzky had been allowed to play only 1/2-seasons through his career, he'd still have had several 100+ point seasons.
In one regular season, he had 59 goals and 124 points only on home-ice. You can't make this stuff up...Thanks for the stats. And yes, especially amusing when you realize that if we count all his half seasons (twice he broke the 100pt. barrier in both ends of the season) he has 7 100pt. seasons, which would be tied for 3rd most all-time.
If we take the stricter route, and only give him one 100pt. season per season, he still gets to 5, which would put him tied for 14th all-time.
I think in every sense, literally, if you cut Gretzky's career in half he's still a Hall of Famer and not only a run of the mill Hall of Famer, but a high end one.