Best Season 'Starts' in NHL history

TheStatican · Jul 23, 2022

I'm in the process of making a very large thread and I delved into a lot of different statistics for it, this is just one of the many stats I looked into. It's a list of the best 10-game and 20-game season starts(from 1966-67 through to 2021-22). I highly doubt any pre-expansion season/post war season would make it onto either lists so I did not look through those seasons. Some pre-war seasons might make it but I'm positive no one is beating Lemieux here.

The numbers really do go to show just how good of a starter Lemieux was. Imo there's no disputing it, he was the best starter in league history, yes even more so than #99. I mean Gretzky has 8 of the top 10 point seasons of all time vs 2 for Lemieux, yet Lemieux has 4 of the best 10 starts vs only 2 for Gretzky. Also his scoring average is a fair bit higher with a ppg of 2.01 vs 1.83. Interestingly enough Lemieux was also was a better season finisher as well, again with a fair ppg gap 1.98 vs 1.79(although I didn't look into it, it's clear then that Gretzky would have a sizable advantage in his favor through the middle stretch of a season).

Best first ten games of a season;

1	16-21-37	Mario Lemieux	1988-89
T2	17-15-32	Mike Bossy	1984-85
-	14-18-32	Mario Lemieux	1992-93
-	13-19-32	Mario Lemieux	1995-96
5	11-19-30	Wayne Gretzky	1984-85
T6	10-19-29	Brent Sutter	1984-85
-	9-20-29	Pat Lafontaine	1992-93
8	8-20-28	Wayne Gretzky	1986-87
T9	14-12-26	Mario Lemieux	1986-87
-	13-13-26	Charlie Simmer	1980-81
-	11-15-26	Kevin Stevens	1992-93
-	10-16-26	Marcel Dionne	1979-80
T13	12-13-25	Wayne Gretzky	1983-84
-	10-15-25	Guy Lafleur	1975-76
T15	14-10-24	Phil Esposito	1973-74
-	10-14-24	Rob Brown	1988-89
-	5-19-24	Wayne Gretzky	1985-86
T18	7-17-24	Wayne Gretzky	1993-94
-	10-13-23	Leon Draisaitl	2021-22
-	12-11-23	Peter Stastny	1987-88
-	11-12-23	Mario Lemieux	1987-88
-	10-13-23	Jari Kurri	1984-85
-	9-14-23	Wayne Gretzky	1988-89
-	7-16-23	Wayne Gretzky	1987-88
-	6-17-23	Mario Lemieux	2002-03
T26	8-14-22	Dave Taylor	1980-81
-	8-14-22	Michel Goulet	1987-88
-	8-14-22	Connor McDavid	2021-22

Best first twenty games of a season;

1	23-37-60	Mario Lemieux	1988-89
T2	24-33-57	Wayne Gretzky	1983-84
-	22-35-57	Mario Lemieux	1995-96
4	19-35-54	Wayne Gretzky	1984-85
5	23-29-52	Mario Lemieux	1992-93
6	14-36-50	Wayne Gretzky	1987-88
7	24-25-49	Mike Bossy	1984-85
T8	23-24-47	Bernie Nicholls	1988-89
-	13-34-47	Denis Savard	1987-88
10	23-23-46	Phil Esposito	1973-74
T11	15-30-45	Wayne Gretzky	1985-86
-	15-30-45	Wayne Gretzky	1986-87
-	14-31-45	Wayne Gretzky	1982-83
14	21-23-44	Wayne Gretzky	1981-82
T15	20-23-43	Mario Lemieux	1987-88
-	19-24-43	Marcel Dionne	1979-80
-	14-29-43	Pat Lafontaine	1992-93
T18	17-25-42	Jaromir Jagr	1995-96
-	16-26-42	Brent Sutter	1984-85
-	16-26-42	Wayne Gretzky	1988-89
-	15-27-42	Jari Kurri	1992-93
T22	21-20-41	Charlie Simmer	1980-81
-	19-22-41	Peter Stastny	1987-88
-	14-27-41	Michel Goulet	1987-88
-	11-30-41	Mario Lemieux	2002-03
T26	20-20-40	Leon Draisaitl	2021-22
-	17-23-40	Marcel Dionne	1980-81
-	17-23-40	Rob Brown	1988-89
-	10-30-40	Wayne Gretzky	1989-90
-	9-31-40	John Cullen	1990-91
-	9-31-40	Wayne Gretzky	1993-94
T32	24-15-39	Dino Ciccarelli	1986-87
-	21-18-39	Marcel Dionne	1981-82
-	19-20-39	Jaromir Jagr	1999-00
-	15-24-39	Bobby Orr	1974-75
-	13-26-39	Mark Recchi	1992-93
-	11-28-39	Bobby Orr	1973-74

I don't know what was in the water in October 1987, but something caused it to have more players with quick starts(5) than any other season in league history.

And because inquiring minds would probably like to know, here's a look at Gretzky and Lemieux's individual seasons;
Gretzky

Season	First 10	First 20	20gm rank	Season end rank	10gm ppg	20gm ppg	Final ppg	Final 20	Final 10
1979-80	4-9-13	9-21-30	6	T1	1.30	1.50	1.73	16-22-38	10-12-22
1980-81	5-11-16	9-22-31	7	1	1.60	1.55	2.05	16-34-50	5-24-29
1981-82	7-10-17	21-23-44	1	1	1.70	2.20	2.65	22-34-56	10-15-25
1982-83	6-16-22	14-31-45	1	1	2.20	2.25	2.45	21-28-49	9-19-28
1983-84	12-13-25	24-33-57	1	1	2.50	2.85	2.77	24-23-47	8-13-21
1984-85	11-19-30	19-35-54	1	1	3.00	2.70	2.60	13-28-41	8-15-23
1985-86	5-19-24	15-30-45	1	1	2.40	2.25	2.69	11-42-53	4-22-26
1986-87	8-20-28	15-30-45	1	1	2.80	2.25	2.32	8-26-34	2-12-14
1987-88	7-16-23	14-36-50	1	2	2.30	2.60	2.33	6-40-46	4-21-25
1988-89	9-14-23	16-26-42	3	2	2.30	2.10	2.15	10-27-37	3-14-17
1989-90	6-12-18	10-30-40	1	1	1.80	2.00	1.95	11-25-36	5-15-20
1990-91	7-14-21	14-24-38	2	1	2.10	1.90	2.09	8-42-50	3-20-23
1991-92	4-10-14	10-21-31	8	3	1.40	1.55	1.64	7-28-35	3-11-14
1992-93	2-11-13	3-21-24	na	T91	1.30	1.20	1.44	10-24-34	4-10-14
1993-94	7-17-24	9-31-40	1	1	2.40	2.00	1.60	7-17-24	4-9-13
1994-95	2-9-11	4-15-19	44	T19	1.10	0.95	1.00	6-19-25	1-7-8
1995-96	2-13-15	7-27-34	3	12	1.50	1.70	1.28	8-14-22	4-6-10
1996-97	3-8-11	8-17-25	3	T4	1.10	1.25	1.18	8-11-19	4-6-10
1997-98	3-6-9	6-14-20	23	4	0.90	1.00	1.10	7-20-27	3-7-10
1998-99	1-7-8	2-15-17	42	T33	0.80	0.85	0.89	1-11-12	1-4-5
totals	365	731						735	357
ppg					1.83	1.83	1.92	1.84	1.79

Lemieux

Season	First 10	First 20	20 gm rank	Season end rank	10gm ppg	20gm ppg	Final ppg	Final 20	Final 10
1984-85	2-11-13	6-24-30	38	13	1.30	1.50	1.37	14-12-26	7-7-14
1985-86	8-9-17	13-22-35	2	2	1.70	1.75	1.78	10-21-31	3-9-12
1986-87	14-12-26	20-18-38	2	3	2.60	1.90	1.70	15-16-31	3-9-12
1987-88	11-12-23	20-23-43	3	1	2.30	2.15	2.18	17-30-47	13-16-29
1988-89	16-21-37	23-37-60	1	1	3.70	3.00	2.62	23-22-45	19-8-27
1989-90	5-13-18	11-26-37	2	4	1.80	1.85	2.08	19-26-45	10-14-24
1990-91	7-14-21	12-22-34	na	T113	2.10	1.70	1.73	>	overlaps
1991-92	9-10-19	14-18-32	5	1	1.90	1.60	2.05	15-33-48	9-16-25
1992-93	14-18-32	23-29-52	1	1	3.20	2.60	2.62	30-26-56	16-11-27
1993-94	6-10-16	16-19-35	>50	T194	1.60	1.75	1.68	>	overlaps
1995-96	13-19-32	22-35-57	1	1	3.20	2.85	2.30	19-22-41	12-13-25
1996-97	5-8-13	9-18-27	7	1	1.30	1.35	1.61	7-19-26	6-11-17
2000-01	9-12-21	19-18-37	na	T29	2.10	1.85	1.77	15-23-38	7-12-19
2001-02	1-9-10	6-22-28	>50	T213	1.00	1.40	1.29	>	overlaps
2002-03	6-17-23	11-30-41	1	8	2.30	2.05	1.36	7-9-16	1-5-6
2003-04	1-8-9	na	>50	T509	0.90	na	0.90	>	overlaps
2005-06	5-6-11	7-13-20	46	T355	1.10	1.00	0.85	>	overlaps
totals	341	606						450	237
ppg					2.01	1.89	1.88	1.88	1.98

I may compile a list of the top finishers in the future or perhaps someone else can but for comparative purposes Conner McDavid had 5-19-24 in his last 10 and 12-30-42 in his last 20 in 2020-21. Steven Stamkos had an even better final 10(but not 20) at the end of this year with 10-16-26 and 20 of 14-25-39 Kucherov had 10-13-23 & 14-22-36

morehockeystats · Jul 23, 2022

What's so magical about numbers with '0' at the end?

andrjusha · Jul 23, 2022

Interesting, you could calculate cooldown factor as well,
eg last season McDavid had 2.20 PPG after 10 and 1.54 at season's end so cooldown factor is 1.54/2.20=70%
Mario went from 3.70 to 2.62, same 70%

So next time somebody has a hot start, we know they will loose 30% of PPG and cool down expectations

TheStatican · Jul 24, 2022

morehockeystats said:
What's so magical about numbers with '0' at the end?

Lol I dunno, it's a good question and one that I certainly don't have an answer for...

We humans just seem to have a strange affinity for even numbers especially ones that end in zero. 49 and 99? Meh, not bad I guess... But 50 or 100? and HOLY COW! That's noteworthy. Just the way it is

bobholly39 · Aug 10, 2022

Lemieux with 30 goals in 20 games (and 56 points) to end the season in 1992-1993 after coming back from chemo....absolutely insane. Still think it's the most impressive regular season of all-time

This was fun to see. I'm actually surprised to see Lemieux with better 10 and 20 game season starts than Gretzky....I think it supports the theory that Lemieux had less consistency/work ethic than Gretzky. If he went all out for ~80 games, no question he could have done even better than he did.

I gotta say I never would have guessed that:

1. Bossy has a better 10 game season start than Gretzky's best
2. Gretzky only appears once in the top 7, and twice in the top 12 of this list

Typically Gretzky dominates everything

Hockey Outsider · Oct 24, 2022

bobholly39 said:
Bossy has a better 10 game season start than Gretzky's best

What an unbelievable start to the year for Bossy. In his first ten games, he scored 2+ points in nine of them (including a 7 point game, a 5 point game, and two 4 point games).

Bossy was on fire until late November. As of November 24th, was only seven points behind peak Gretzky (59-52). Next were two of their linemates (Sutter with 42 points and Kurri with 41). The closest non-linemates were way back with 34 points.

The rest of the season, Bossy "only" had 65 points in 55 games (out of the top twenty in scoring, and scoring at less than half the rate per game).

Trottier missed more than half of the games at the start of the season. It looks like Bossy really stepped it up (playing primarily with Brent Sutter) when Trottier was out.

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Best Season 'Starts' in NHL history

TheStatican

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