Better GOALscoring season: Ovie 07-08 vs Matthews 23-24

[Old Gregg]

Hey, OV is playing in today's NHL. It isn't too different from 10 years ago with regards to physicality. OV was also suspended back then for his hits. His suspension for his hit to Brian Campbell cost him a Hart.

I am talking about the league cracking down on headshots/charging which OV got away with multiple times earlier in his career

 

[Midnight Judges]

Well Matthews played just over 14 minutes total recently in one of the remaining games of the season in his chase for 70... So maybe? Lol

But realistically this is a situation Ovechkin has benefitted from his entire career even to this day, he's the only one who plays 5+ minutes on the powerplay just about every year, and the only season he played under 4 minutes there (but still more than Matthews has ever played in his career) he scored 33 goals. There's also the fact that the Leafs are in the bottom 10 in powerplay opportunities every single season of Matthews' career.

The Capitals are #1 in the NHL in powerplay percentage from 2005-2024 (Ovechkin's entire career).

NHL Stats

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It's not some drawback on him. It's a team benefit.

 

[authentic]

The Capitals are #1 in the NHL in powerplay percentage from 2005-2024 (Ovechkin's entire career).

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

It's not some drawback on him. It's a team benefit.

That's amazing and of course he's the main reason for that, but Matthews scores goals at a higher rate on the powerplay except he doesn't get to spent 25% of his career there.

 

[MacMacandBarbie]

That's amazing and of course he's the main reason for that, but Matthews scores goals at a higher rate on the powerplay except he doesn't get to spent 25% of his career there.

Great, Matthews should just become an uncontainable force that baits defenders into committing silly penalties like OV has his entire career.

You need either McDavid’s speed or MacKinnon’s explosiveness in today’s NHL to force defenders to hook and hold you up if you want to get more PP time. Why does every Matthews goal thread devolve into a ‘what if Matthews and his team drew more penalties’ like it’s going to make Matthews a faster or more explosive skater. It’s not his game.

 

[Despote]

I think it's fair to note that a lot of Ovechkin's excess PP time is trash minutes where the probability of scoring is quite low after the opposing team has cleared the puck from their zone.

If you control this by adjusting for his minutes with Bäckström (proxy for PP1), his rate stats on the PP become much better.

 

[MacMacandBarbie]

I am talking about the league cracking down on headshots/charging which OV got away with multiple times earlier in his career

I still don't know what you are trying to say. OV throws the same amount of hits as he did earlier in his career.

 

[spiny norman]

Lopsided result.