Lemieux scoring 5 different ways - what are the odds?

[Silent Knight]

Calling the 5 ways "meaningless" or downplaying it at all is such an NPC move.

 

[The Panther]

It's a cool and unique happenstance, but that's as far as we need to take it. It's certainly not an "achievement" by Lemieux. His achievement is being an awesome enough player to score five in a game, not scoring them in five different ways, which is just interesting trivia.

It's hardly comparable to hitting for the cycle in baseball. To do that, if you're any kind of power hitter who gets four hits in a game (which isn't rare), you already have a good chance of doing it. It's just far less rare; in fact, it happened this month.

 

[SeanConn]

It's a unique achievement, and no one has replicated it since... until someone does, it's very much an achievement. Nowhere near the top of the list of his many other achievements, but truly one of the most unique single game achievements in NHL history. A great piece of sports trivia...

 

[Kranix]

I think Iggy scored 4 goals in 4 different game-situations one time.

 

[The Panther]

It's a unique achievement, and no one has replicated it since... until someone does, it's very much an achievement.

I guess I'm nit-picking, but I don't consider an "accidental" thing to be an achievement.

Someone mentioned the Detroit game where Fedorov (and no, I'm not a Fedorov fanboy) scored all 5 of his team's goals, including the overtime winner. Surely that's a greater achievement than Lemieux's scoring 5 of his team's 8, with one into an empty net?

I guess the point is, just because an obscure and rare thing happened doesn't make it an "achievement".

 

[SeanConn]

I guess I'm nit-picking, but I don't consider an "accidental" thing to be an achievement.

Someone mentioned the Detroit game where Fedorov (and no, I'm not a Fedorov fanboy) scored all 5 of his team's goals, including the overtime winner. Surely that's a greater achievement than Lemieux's scoring 5 of his team's 8, with one into an empty net?

I guess the point is, just because an obscure and rare thing happened doesn't make it an "achievement".

I wouldn't call it obscure, but it's certainly rare.

 

[Fantomas]

That Fedorov 5-goal game was amazing.

 

[JohnnyBerts]

Guys as others have already said, the stat isn’t impressive because it requires such a unique set of circumstances to occur. The narrative around the “ways” he scored is just fancy literature to further categorize what Lemieux did in relation to others. I don’t think a player as great as Lemieux was needs that “record” or recognition.

What’s impressive is that Lemieux scored 5 goals in a game and he did that an unbelievable four times in his career.

 

[BL92]

GOAT.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Same logic applies to a Penalty Shot.

It really begs the question... why do they denote "(EN)" on the scoresheet, and keep track of and list EN goals as a basic and common statistic... as though we view them diffeently from a regular goal?

Hmmm... I'm trying to think of other ways in which we can diminish his achievement. I'd hate to have to acknowledge this feat for what it was... "5 different goals, each scored in different player deployment configurations based on different same-game situations."

I believe it is for the goalie stats as EN goals do not counts against the GAA for the goalie of record.

 

[Newsworthy]

It's a cool and unique happenstance, but that's as far as we need to take it. It's certainly not an "achievement" by Lemieux. His achievement is being an awesome enough player to score five in a game, not scoring them in five different ways, which is just interesting trivia.

It's hardly comparable to hitting for the cycle in baseball. To do that, if you're any kind of power hitter who gets four hits in a game (which isn't rare), you already have a good chance of doing it. It's just far less rare; in fact, it happened this month.

I don't agree entirely
No other player has put themselves in thisposition. It's an example of his greatness

 

[sr edler]

That Fedorov 5-goal game was amazing.

All even strength, just like Zhamnov in 94–95.

 

[Chris18820]

The feat is unlikely to be ever done again. It would be akin to a National League pitcher throwing a perfect game and hitting for the cycle at the same time.

 

[blood gin]

This is being talked about now 10000x more than when it actually happened

When Lemieux did it was a nice little moment, 5 goals very impressive, then nobody said a word about it again for another 10 years when the anomaly was discovered.

 

[patnyrnyg]

This is being talked about now 10000x more than when it actually happened

When Lemieux did it was a nice little moment, 5 goals very impressive, then nobody said a word about it again for another 10 years when the anomaly was discovered.

It wasn't 10 years. I remember it being discussed on the Rangers broadcast shortly after it happening.

 

[Doctor No]

It was mentioned in the national news feeds and so appeared in just about every major newspaper in the country on January 1, 1989 (I just looked on newspapers.com).

But blood gin didn't say that it wasn't mentioned when it happened - he specifically said that it was mentioned when it happened, and then not mentioned for another 10 years. That statement I don't quite believe either, but it's slightly harder to fact check.

 

[Tweed]

I think EN goals are noted mainly because of goalies and not skaters. The game ended 4-2 with 4th goal of winning team being EN goal - you know that losing goaltender allowed three goals, not four.

I believe it is for the goalie stats as EN goals do not counts against the GAA for the goalie of record.

Are you guys explaining that to me, because you think I didn't know that?

My point was, there's people in this discussion who are diminishing what Lemieux accomplished because it included him putting a puck into an unguarded goal. Either it's DIFFERENT from the "normal" scenario of scoring a goal (ie. "against a goalie"), or it's not. Either we feel it's important to denote that an opposing goalie didn't allow that goal, or we don't and we don't. People can't have it both ways. It's amazing the lengths they'll go to, to try and diminish what Mario did. The usual suspects, doin' their insecurity routine, is what it is. If Wayne achieved this feat, they'd call it a record, build a mall in honour of it, and name it 'Five Ways Centre'.

 

[Newsworthy]

A single player scoring five times in one NHL game has only been accomplished sixty times by 44 players. Lemieux and Wayne have both done it four times. Only eight players have done it more than once.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Are you guys explaining that to me, because you think I didn't know that?

My point was, there's people in this discussion who are diminishing what Lemieux accomplished because it included him putting a puck into an unguarded goal. Either it's DIFFERENT from the "normal" scenario of scoring a goal (ie. "against a goalie"), or it's not. Either we feel it's important to denote that an opposing goalie didn't allow that goal, or we don't and we don't. People can't have it both ways. It's amazing the lengths they'll go to, to try and diminish what Mario did. The usual suspects, doin' their insecurity routine, is what it is. If Wayne achieved this feat, they'd call it a record, build a mall in honour of it, and name it 'Five Ways Centre'.

If this comment was a nail you just Tom Wilson'd it.

 

[blood gin]

It wasn't 10 years. I remember it being discussed on the Rangers broadcast shortly after it happening.

Definitely yes it was mentioned but the moment was treated more like a curiosity and was not considered legendary or historic. A great achievement, 5 goals in a game but not an annals of NHL history type moment that it would eventually get hyped into (and I'm not sure how it happened, even though my team was on the bad end of it I don't have anything against Mario). After all it was just a regular season game between two bad teams. For most of the time it was treated along the lines of the Tugnutt 70 save regular season masterpiece or Billy Smith's credited goal.

 

[patnyrnyg]

Definitely yes it was mentioned but the moment was treated more like a curiosity and was not considered legendary or historic. A great achievement, 5 goals in a game but not an annals of NHL history type moment that it would eventually get hyped into (and I'm not sure how it happened, even though my team was on the bad end of it I don't have anything against Mario). After all it was just a regular season game between two bad teams. For most of the time it was treated along the lines of the Tugnutt 70 save regular season masterpiece or Billy Smith's credited goal.

True. I always remember it being thought of as an oddity for lack of a better term. "He scored 5 goals in a game and it was the 5 different ways you can score!" The Billy Smith comparison is a good one. Smith was the first goalie "credited" with a goal, but Hextall was the first to legitimately score a goal.