One Gretzky stat (among many) that always turns my head is that, in 1984-85, he scored 73 goals -- and only 8 on the power-play. I mean, how is that even possible...?
In '82, he scored 74 at ES or shorthanded. (68 at ES, which is the all-time record)
In '84, he scored 67 at ES or shorthanded.
In '85, he scored 65 at ES or shorthanded.
I mean, WTF?
Can anyone even approach that? Mario, in '89, had a huge proportion of goals (31) on the PP, meaning he had 54 at ES or shorthanded. Mario's ES goals are a bit more impressive maybe in '93 -- that's the year he had 69 in 60 games, and 53 of them were ES or shorthanded. (Based on an 80-game season, that pro-rates to about 71, so he might have been close.) However, Mario really feasted off the PP in his last enormous year, '96, when he had more goals on the PP (31) than at ES!
Brett Hull? In his world-beating year of '91, he had 57 at ES (none shorthanded). Jari Kurri did the same (playing with Gretzky) in '85. So, I guess that's the most ES and Shorties by anyone NOT named Gretzky.
Hull -- 57 in '91. Kurri -- 57 in '85. Lemieux -- 54 in '89. Yzerman? 48 in '89. Esposito? 54 in '74. Nicholls? 49 in '89. Bossy? 47 in '82. Shutt? 52 in '77. Selanne? 52 in '93. Leach? 51 in '76. Mogilny? 49 in '93. McDonald? 49 in '83. Stamkos? 48 in '12. Bure? 47 in 2000. (That Stamkos season two years ago is pretty amazing, when you look at how many goals he got at ES. Ovechkin's best is 43 in '08.)
So, when you combine ES and Shorthanded goals, Gretzky wins like this (according to my brief check... if anyone can correct this please do!):
1) Gretzky 74*
2) Gretzky 67
3) Gretzky 65
4) Kurri 57
4) Hull 57
6) Esposito 54
6) Lemieux 54
8) Gretzky 53
(*So what that means is, he basically scored a goal a game for an entire season... if they'd never put him on the PP at all for the entire season! Think about that...)
Peak-Gretzky's lack of PP goals makes you wonder... because he obviously got a lot of power-play time. In 1985, for example, he had 35 PP assists, but only 8 goals (despite leading the NHL in goals), which is quite disproportionate to his overall totals. It would appear that, on the PP, he was -- and I hate to toot Gretzky's horn yet further -- not really trying to score himself. With the man advantage and extra space on the ice, he was able to use his teammates even more than usual, to set them up.
Consider 1981 (he got 55 goals on 261 shots) and 1982 (he got 92 goals on 369 shots). You would logically assume that, having increased his goal production by 60% by taking 108 more shots on net, his power-play goal production would be way up. But no. In 1981, he had 15 on the PP and in 1982 he had 18.
However, a much larger percentage of Gretzky's goals are scored on the PP starting in 1992 (though not in his shorter '93 season), and again in '94 onward. This seems to apply to his assists, too.
For example, in the record-destroying assist season of 1985-86, when he had a staggering 163 assists, 42 of them were on the PP. Years later in L.A., in 1991, he finished with 122 assists (41 fewer), but a career-high 51 were on the PP.
Stats like this boggle the mind.
