Joe Thorton passes Trottier and Bure as he moves up to 7th in all time empty net goals!

[Mulletman]

It seems like Joe Thorton still is able to add to his legacy at 41 years old as he passed legendary players like Bryan Trottier and Pavel bure and moved up to 7th all time in empty net goals with this beauty:

Not too bad for Joe Thorton to be in the all time top 10 in a goals category as he's terrible at scoring goals. Here's the all time list for anybody that's interested: NHL Stats
Funny how Thorton has as many empty net goals as Wayne Gretzky has empty net assists. For some reason Gretzky was terrible at empty net assists as he has 4 less empty net assists than Nicklas Backstrom.

Click to read more...

 

[crowi]

Gz to him. Is it an occasion to pull out the rooster?

 

[Groo]

What a complier

 

[DearDiary]

Sleepy Joe still racking up the records

 

[jetsforever]

How long has that been tracked? Gretzky at #1 (no surprise) followed by Hossa, Ovechkin, Lemieux, Iginla, Staal, Iginla, Staal, Thornton makes me think it must be relatively recent
Good for Joe though - presumably there's a correlation with games played rather than being a sniper

 

[Alwalys]

Thornton scores a lot of ens because through most of his career he'd be out protecting leads at the end of games and he dominates the puck.

 

[Mulletman]

How long has that been tracked? Gretzky at #1 (no surprise) followed by Hossa, Ovechkin, Lemieux, Iginla, Staal, Iginla, Staal, Thornton makes me think it must be relatively recent
Good for Joe though - presumably there's a correlation with games played rather than being a sniper

The first two empty net goals were scored back in 1931-32 season by Auriel Joliat and Cecil Dillon so it's been a part of hockey for almost 90 years now http://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=19171918&seasonTo=19311932&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=emptyNetGoals&page=0&pageSize=50
Gordie Howe for example only scored 12 empty net goals and Marleau has 21 empty net goals so there's no correlation with games played.

 

[jetsforever]

The first two empty net goals were scored back in 1931-32 season by Auriel Joliat and Cecil Dillon so it's been a part of hockey for almost 90 years now http://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=19171918&seasonTo=19311932&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=emptyNetGoals&page=0&pageSize=50
Gordie Howe for example only scored 12 empty net goals and Marleau has 21 empty net goals so there's no correlation with games played.

Interesting, maybe goalies are pulled more now than in the past then? Or teams are more aggressive now when defending? There has to be some reason why the leaders are mostly recent guys (including Marchand, Kane, Bergeron, Wheeler, Parise, Alfredsson, Malkin, Crosby, Backes, Kovalchuk, Nash all in the top 25)

 

[Ivo]

It makes sense that he is good at that. Scoring into an empty net is more similar to passing than to shooting - it’s more about precision, less about velocity.

 

[Ivo]

Interesting, maybe goalies are pulled more now than in the past then? Or teams are more aggressive now when defending? There has to be some reason why the leaders are mostly recent guys (including Marchand, Kane, Bergeron, Wheeler, Parise, Alfredsson, Malkin, Crosby, Backes, Kovalchuk, Nash all in the top 25)

One reason is more games played, so they get more chances to do it. The other maybe more parity in the game, resulting in more games that are close and goalies are pulled. Also, I don’t know, if the coaches always used to pull the goalie with three goals down and five minutes to go, like we sometimes see now. I don’t remember seeing that as a kid in the 90s, but idk.

 

[MasterDecoy]

Reads first half of title
Oh, nice

reads second half of the title
Oh come on

 

[Kojo]

That about cement his legacy. There will be a picture of this and his panoply at the Hall of Fame.

 

[667ekip]

Aho is already 36th wtf

 

[SenzZen]

One of the greatest to ever do it!

And I'm talking @Mulletman here.

 

[Calderon]

Definitely a bizarre list if EN has been a thing since the 1930s. In the top50 the oldest player was born in 1945, a couple more in the 1950s, then there are a few of Gretzky's generation and the vast majority are either still active NHL'ers or have retired within the last 10 years. There has to be something in play here relating to rules, tracking or something else of that nature. How else can Sebastian Aho with under 400 games on his belt be way higher on the list than all time greats like Howe, Lafleur, Espo, Bobby Hull (I've read that Brett didn't like scoring ENG's so that would explain his absence)?

 

[Yackiberg8]

It makes sense that he is good at that. Scoring into an empty net is more similar to passing than to shooting - it’s more about precision, less about velocity.

It’s more about opportunity.

 

[DieSendungmitderMaus]

Aho is already 36th wtf

Heading over to the stat padding thread as we speak

 

[Chimpradamus]

Aho is already 36th wtf

There are a ton more empty netters nowadays than before, since teams are pulling the goalie in games alot more.

 

[paragon]

Aho is already 36th wtf

One of the reasons is that quite a few of those ENGs are also SHGs. Opponent pulls the goalie for 4vs6 and Aho is out there killing penalties. Out of players who have scored 5+ SHGs, Aho has the highest SHG/60 and he's already #220 in SHGs while only 23 yo. I think he's going to be top 10 in SHGs when he retires.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Interesting, maybe goalies are pulled more now than in the past then? Or teams are more aggressive now when defending? There has to be some reason why the leaders are mostly recent guys (including Marchand, Kane, Bergeron, Wheeler, Parise, Alfredsson, Malkin, Crosby, Backes, Kovalchuk, Nash all in the top 25)

I wonder if it’s more standardized/systematic. Goalies get pulled at a certain point, you put certain players out there- seems like teams would eventually fall into strategies that lead to higher numbers for certain guys.

 

[Guided by Veseys]

Auston Matthews has only three in his entire career. Pretty wild considering his cumulative goal totals.

 

[Simplicity]

Auston Matthews has only three in his entire career. Pretty wild considering his cumulative goal totals.

I think that says a lot about how his coaches feel about his defensive play.

 

[Paperbagofglory]

The first two empty net goals were scored back in 1931-32 season by Auriel Joliat and Cecil Dillon so it's been a part of hockey for almost 90 years now http://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?report=realtime&reportType=season&seasonFrom=19171918&seasonTo=19311932&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=emptyNetGoals&page=0&pageSize=50
Gordie Howe for example only scored 12 empty net goals and Marleau has 21 empty net goals so there's no correlation with games played.

"Joliat and Howie Morentz made quite the duo. I remember attending those habs games as a kid and watching them dominate"

Joe Thornton

 

[Guided by Veseys]

I think that says a lot about how his coaches feel about his defensive play.

Nah, for years he’s been out consistently defending when the other team has the net empty. With Keefe he has been the go to center all situations.
He just doesn’t bury them when the net is empty. One of the best goal scorers all time but can’t score eng, very odd.

 

[NinjaTurtle]

Interesting that Marchand and Bergeron are 10 and 13. I get that Boston keeps a lot of games close and that’s their top two way line, but crazy to have line mates so high up, with time left to go higher.

Also, Aho could challenge for the record with some many already.