CHL Scoring

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In his final year of juniors, Lemieux put up absurd scoring totals of 133 goals and 149 assists in 70 games, to come out at over 4 points per game and 282 total.


Has anyone ever come close to this number?

Will anyone ever come close to it?


Would your team be better off playing with your goalie pulled in order to always have an extra man covering him?

Click to read more...

 

[Canadiens1958]

Pat Lafontaine

In his final year of juniors, Lemieux put up absurd scoring totals of 133 goals and 149 assists in 70 games, to come out at over 4 points per game and 282 total.


Has anyone ever come close to this number?

Will anyone ever come close to it?


Would your team be better off playing with your goalie pulled in order to always have an extra man covering him?

Pat Lafontaine and Mario Lemieux were both born in 1965:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=2871

Mario Lemieux:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=3105

Because Mario Lemieux was born after Sept 15, 1965 he was not eligible for the 1983 NHL Entry Draft but was eligible in 1984.

Lafontaine's numbers were impressive for a first year junior. Mario Lemieux's record junior season was his third. Lafontaine outscored Lemieux rather handily in 1983. Granted Lafontaine played on a much better team.

 

[Milos Krasic]

Players in QMJHL to hit 200:

Guy Lafleur, 209 in 70-71
Pierre Larouche, 251 in 73-74
Pat LaFontaine, 234 in in 82-83
Mario Lemieux, 282 in 83-84
Marc Fortier, 201 in 86-87
Patrice Lefebvre, 200 in 87-88

 

[Infinite Vision*]

4 points a game is just discusting.

 

[Howe Elbows 9]

Players in QMJHL to hit 200:

Guy Lafleur, 209 in 70-71
Pierre Larouche, 251 in 73-74
Pat LaFontaine, 234 in in 82-83
Mario Lemieux, 282 in 83-84
Marc Fortier, 201 in 86-87
Patrice Lefebvre, 200 in 87-88

There was some serious QMJHL scoring going on in 73-74, according to Wikipedia:

The season sparked an offensive explosion, unmatched in Canadian Hockey League history. The Sorel Éperviers finished first overall in the regular season, and set a CHL record of 620 goals scored as a team. Three Sorel players, Pierre Larouche, Michel Deziel and Jacques Cossette, had more than 90 goals and 200 points each. Sorel goalkeeper Claude Legris won the top goaltender award, despite posting a 4.50 goals against average; the highest GAA of any Jacques Plante Memorial Trophy winner to date.

Pierre Larouche set a Canadian junior ice hockey record scoring record for most points scored in a season with 251, that lasted until the 1983–84 QMJHL season when broken by Mario Lemieux. Three different players, Mike Bossy, Alain Daigle and Bob Sirois each scored 70 goals or more in the season, yet none were in the top ten league scoring leaders.

The Quebec Remparts finished second place in the regular season despite scoring 531 goals as a team, the second highest in CHL history. Quebec won the President's Cup, defeating the first place Sorel Éperviers in the finals.

This makes me think about what kind of experience it must have been as a QMJHL goalie in these days. Here are the QMJHL goalies that were drafted following these three high scoring seasons:

1974
Reggie Lemelin, Sherbrooke Beavers, 4.60 GAA
Paul Touzin, Shawinigan Dynamos, 5.89 GAA
Mario Lessard, Sherbrooke Beavers, 5.05 GAA
Richard Guay, Chicoutimi Sagueneens, 6.05 GAA

Both of the Sherbrooke goalies had good NHL careers. Lemelin's 507 games is the most out of any 1974 drafted goaltender and he won a William M. Jennings Trophy in 1989-90 in Boston (along with Andy Moog). Lessard played 240 games and was on the winning side in the Miracle on Manchester.

1983
Luc Guenette, Quebec Remparts, 5.46 GAA
Alain Raymond, Trois Rivieres Draveurs, 6.33 GAA
Marc Hamelin, Shawinigan Cataractes, 3.55 GAA

Raymond played one NHL game.

1984
Patrick Roy, Granby Bisons, 4.44 GAA
Troy Crosby, Verdun Juniors, 4.03 GAA

Roy needs no introduction and Troy is Sidney's dad.

 

[ozzie]

That season is impressive any way you look at it. I was fortunate to see several of his games during that season.

I lived in Ontario and went to some OHL action as well, but when I visited family we went to some QMJHL games.

He dominated in a way no one ever dominated junior hockey. QMJHL was extremely offensive hockey. But no one played defense and it was so wide open, lots of outside play.

Mario played even less defense in the QMJHL then he did at the NHL level, especially in the early parts of his career. The whole system was based on getting him the puck at the blueline or red line and watching him go.

I got to see him during different parts of the season.

Its hard to explain, but as he got closer to breaking records the whole team was on a mission to help him accomplish it. He was also a monster and a demon, he was chasing it hard.

They smashed the league that year, while impressive it was odd to see an offensive set up like that. It was all about him, every shift, every game. He got away with a lot of lapses, he left his team down a man so much. But you know what they won it didnt matter.

I don't know many players ever who got that kind of treatment, but he had the skill to back it up.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Well you gotta look at it in context, a 3rd year in which he was 18. A lot of the elite players didn't get a 3rd year in the juniors. We'll never know what Gretzky, Hawerchuk, Crosby, Turgeon or Lindros would have done in a full third junior year. And if you consider that Gretzky was tearing up the WHA and Crosby scored over a 100 points in the NHL in what would have been their 3rd senior years...

 

[Michael Farkas]

Its hard to explain, but as he got closer to breaking records the whole team was on a mission to help him accomplish it. He was also a monster and a demon, he was chasing it hard.

Did he not skip out on the Canadian World Junior team to ensure breaking the record as well? As a die-hard Pens fan, I love him of course, but he was quite self-serving in his early days especially...but like you accurately note, boy could he back it up and then some!