Obscure hockey facts/stats (Part 2)

[alko]

Bobby Orr is still alive.

Ice-hockey Version of Chuck Norris

 

[The Panther]

Maybe now is a good time to update this post I did a few years ago, as scoring continues to be 'up' from previous seasons and there are recent updates.

The topic is each player since expansion who recorded 30 or more scoring points in one regular season calendar month.

(The parenthetical is games played, goals, assists, and plus/minus):


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - STARTING OCTOBER 1967 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1967-68
--
1967-69
31 Phil Esposito -- January 1969 (14GP: 9G, 22A +20)
1969-70
--
1970-71
31 Phil Esposito -- December 1970 (14GP: 19G, 12A +10)
31 Bobby Orr -- March 1971 (15GP: 8G, 23A +26)
1971-72
--
1972-73
32 Phil Esposito -- March 1973 (15GP: 15G, 17A +6)
1973-74
--
1974-75
30 Phil Esposito -- December 1974 (13GP: 15G, 16A +3)
35 Bobby Clarke -- March 1975 (15GP: 7G, 28A +24)
30 Rick MacLeish -- March 1975 (15GP: 13G, 17A +16)
1975-76
--
1976-77
--
1977-78
31 Bryan Trottier -- November 1977 (15GP: 14G, 17A +18)
30 Guy Lafleur -- February 1978 (13GP: 9G, 21A +15)
1978-79
36 Bryan Trottier -- December 1978 (14GP: 16G, 20A +26)
1979-80
30 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1980 (13GP: 14G, 16A +8)
1980-81
35 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1981 (14GP: 10G, 25A +11)
31 Kent Nilsson -- January 1981 (16GP: 10G, 21A +6)
30 Marcel Dionne -- January 1981 (15GP: 15G, 15A +5)
30 Wayne Gretzky -- February 1981 (14GP: 15G, 15A +14)
34 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1981 (14GP: 11G, 23A +14)
1981-82
37 Wayne Gretzky -- November 1981 (13GP: 18G, 19A +19)
44 Wayne Gretzky -- December 1981 (14GP: 19G, 25A +12)
38 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1982 (15GP: 17G, 21A +14)
35 Wayne Gretzky -- February 1982 (11GP: 15G, 20A +20)
34 Mike Bossy -- February 1982 (14GP: 11G, 23A +21)
32 Bryan Trottier -- February 1982 (14GP: 17G, 15A +23)
30 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1982 (13GP: 10G, 20A +10)
1982-83
35 Wayne Gretzky -- November 1982 (13GP: 12G, 23A +12)
32 Wayne Gretzky -- December 1982 (13GP: 10G, 22A +2)
36 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1983 (15GP: 14G, 22A +11)
36 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1983 (13GP: 15G, 21A +17)
31 Stan Smyl -- March 1983 (16GP: 10G, 21A +7)
30 Darcy Rota -- March 1983 (16GP: 15G, 15A +8)
1983-84
*49 Wayne Gretzky -- November 1983 (14GP: 17G, 32A +32)
36 Jari Kurri -- November 1983 (14GP: 16G, 20A +19)
37 Wayne Gretzky -- December 1983 (13GP: 12G, 25A +8)
30 Bryan Trottier -- December 1983 (14GP: 14G, 16A +22)
40 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1984 (13GP: 19G, 21A +22)
1984-85
30 Wayne Gretzky -- October 1984 (10GP: 11G, 19A +26)
38 Wayne Gretzky -- November 1984 (14GP: 13G, 25A +17)
40 Wayne Gretzky -- December 1984 (12GP: 16G, 24A +21)
30 Jari Kurri -- December 1984 (12GP: 13G, 17A +22)
37 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1985 (15GP: 13G, 24A +18)
1985-86
44 Wayne Gretzky -- December 1985 (14GP: 8G, 36A +16)
43 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1986 (15GP: 12G, 31A +10)
30 Mike Bossy -- January 1986 (13GP: 12G, 18A +9)
33 Wayne Gretzky -- February 1986 (11GP: 7G, 26A +13)
31 Mario Lemieux -- February 1986 (12GP: 13G, 18A -1)
37 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1986 (14GP: 6G, 31A +23)
1986-87
33 Wayne Gretzky -- October 1986 (12GP: 11G, 22A +14)
36 Wayne Gretzky -- December 1986 (13GP: 18G, 18A +18)
35 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1987 (14GP: 10G, 25A +23)
32 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1987 (15GP: 7G, 25A +7)
1987-88
34 Wayne Gretzky -- November 1987 (13GP: 11G, 23A +13)
32 Steve Yzerman -- December 1987 (15GP: 12G, 20A +12)
35 Mario Lemieux -- January 1988 (16GP: 17G, 18A +6)
38 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1988 (14GP: 5G, 33A +9)
36 Mario Lemieux -- March 1988 (14GP: 11G, 25A +9)
32 Hakan Loob -- March 1988 (14GP: 15G, 17A +16)
1988-89
38 Mario Lemieux -- October 1988 (11GP: 16G, 22A +14)
31 Wayne Gretzky -- November 1988 (14GP: 10G, 21A +5)
30 Steve Yzerman -- November 1988 (13GP: 17G, 13A +15)
30 Bernie Nicholls -- November 1988 (14GP: 17G, 13A +17)
43 Mario Lemieux -- December 1988 (14GP: 19G, 24A +12)
33 Steve Yzerman -- December 1988 (14GP: 12G, 21A 0)
31 Wayne Gretzky -- December 1988 (13GP: 9G, 22A +10)
30 Bernie Nicholls -- December 1988 (14GP: 9G, 21A +7)
33 Mario Lemieux -- January 1989 (12GP: 11G, 22A +6)
30 Mario Lemieux -- March 1989 (13GP: 18G, 12A -1)
1989-90
--
1990-91
30 Wayne Gretzky -- January 1991 (13GP: 10G, 20A +5)
30 Adam Oates -- January 1991 (13GP: 6G, 24A +7)
30 Brett Hull -- February 1991 (13GP: 17G, 13A, +4)
30 Wayne Gretzky -- February 1991 (14GP: 5G, 25A +9)
30 Adam Oates -- February 1991 (14GP: 7G, 23A -2)
33 Wayne Gretzky -- March 1991 (14GP: 4G, 29A +8)
1991-92
37 Mario Lemieux -- December 1991 (14GP: 11G, 26A +6)
36 Pat Lafontaine -- January 1992 (14GP: 19G, 17A +6)
31 Luc Robitaille -- February 1992 (15GP: 16G, 15A +3
30 Wayne Gretzky -- February 1992 (14GP: 8G, 22A +6)
36 Mario Lemieux -- March 1992 (13GP: 12G, 24A +9)
1992-93
36 Mario Lemieux -- October 1992 (11GP: 16G, 20A +8)
30 Pat Lafontaine -- October 1992 (11GP: 10G, 20A, +4)
36 Mario Lemieux -- December 1992 (12GP: 8G, 28A +11)
37 Mario Lemieux -- March 1993 (13GP: 18G, 19A +12)
1993-94
30 Pavel Bure -- March 1994 (16GP: 19G, 11A +5)
1995 work-stoppage season
--
1995-96
32 Mario Lemieux -- November 1995 (11GP: 13G, 19A +7)
30 Jaromir Jagr -- November 1995 (14GP: 13G, 17A, +14)
34 Mario Lemieux -- December 1995 (14GP: 12G, 22A +5)
32 Jaromir Jagr -- December 1995 (14GP: 13G, 19A, +6)
1996-97
--


- - - - - - - - - - - - - DEAD PUCK ERA, from OCTOBER 1997 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


1997-98
--
1998-99
--
1999-00
--
2000-01
31 Jaromir Jagr -- March 2001 (15GP: 15G, 16A +7)
2001-02
--
2002-03
--
2003-04
--
2005-06
--
2006-07
--
2007-08
--
2008-09
--
2009-10
--
2010-11
--
2011-12
--
2012-13
--
2013-14
--
2014-15
--
2015-16
--
2016-17
--
2017-18
--
2018-19
30 Nikita Kucherov -- December 2018 (14GP: 9G, 21A +7)
2019-20
--
2021
--
2021-22
33 Steven Stamkos -- April 2022 (16GP: 12G, 21A, +13)
31 Nikita Kucherov -- April 2022 (16GP: 14G, 17A, +9)
2022-23
31 Connor McDavid -- March 2023 (15GP: 7G, 24A, +12)
2023-24
--



NOTES:
-- Wayne Gretzky scored 30+ points in one month an unfathomable 36 times. (He is the only player who did it in 1979-80 and in 1986-87, when he did it four times!) As it has happened (I think) 90 times in history, Gretzky by himself did it 40% of the time in history.
-- Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are (not surprisingly) the only players since 1979 to scored 40+ points in one month -- Gretzky six times, Lemieux once.
-- Besides Gretzky and Lemieux, Jari Kurri & Pat Lafontaine (each with 36, once each) are the only players to score 35+ points in one month since October 1979.
-- Gretzky scored a staggering, all-time record 49 points in November 1983... while going +32 that same month.
-- Speaking of plus/minus, Mario (twice) and Adam Oates are the only players to achieve the rather unique feat of scoring 30+ points in one month while being a 'minus' at even-strength.
-- Stan Smyl & Darci Rota in 1982-83 must be the most stunning and surprising names on this list. But it's surprising that Stamkos did it just two years ago...
-- Marcel Dionne missed doing this (again) by one point in 1983-84 and again by one point in 1984-85.
-- Jari Kurri missed by just one point, in December 1985, doing this for a third time.
-- Likewise, Paul Coffey missed by one point in December 1985.
-- Kevin Stevens missed by one point in October 1992.
-- Sergei Fedorov missed by one point in December 1993.
-- It's interesting that nobody, as far as I know, scored 30+ points in a month during 1989-90, the only season from 1979 (or earlier) through 1993-94 when this never occurred.
-- Players who have never done this: Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Peter Stastny, Denis Savard, Dale Hawerchuk, Doug Gilmour, Joe Sakic, Alex Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov, Joe Thornton, Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin.


So, the 30-point month has occurred five times in the past 26 years, once by Jagr at the height of the DPE, twice by Kucherov, and once each by Stamkos and McDavid.

There have been other ones that were close calls recently: McDavid scored 29 in March 2023, and Draisaitl scored 28 the same month. MacKinnon put up 29 points in December this season. (Surprisingly, Kucherov didn't do it this season.)

(I may have overlooked someone here, so do let me know if so.)

 

[Crosby2010]

This falls into the obscure category no one thinks about, although it is Football. In light of OJ's recent death, how many people know that O.J. was coached by Bill Walsh in 1979, OJ's final year. He also had a rookie QB named Joe Montana handing him off the ball that year too (although Montana was mostly a back up that year). How many people would have guessed OJ and Montana were teammates?

 

[The Panther]

The other day, Edmonton beat San Jose 9 to 2.

It was the first time one team has had nine multi-point scorers in an NHL game since 1985-86 (when Edmonton beat Vancouver 13 to 0).

 

[kaiser matias]

Clipped

I'm a little surprised that with 3 players scoring 130+ points no one did it this year.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I'm a little surprised that with 3 players scoring 130+ points no one did it this year.

It looks like McDavid did:

 

[Staniowski]

Re: the top 10 scorers ever

The guy to watch - along with McDavid - is MacKinnon. If he has decent health, he will likely reach 1500 points at a younger age than Crosby and Ovechkin.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

This falls into the obscure category no one thinks about, although it is Football. In light of OJ's recent death, how many people know that O.J. was coached by Bill Walsh in 1979, OJ's final year. He also had a rookie QB named Joe Montana handing him off the ball that year too (although Montana was mostly a back up that year). How many people would have guessed OJ and Montana were teammates?

OJ in SF, Unitas in San Diego, Namath with the Rams… Definitely a shock to see some of the legendary players from that era in a different uniform to end their careers.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Re: the top 10 scorers ever

The guy to watch - along with McDavid - is MacKinnon. If he has decent health, he will likely reach 1500 points at a younger age than Crosby and Ovechkin.

It’s possible, but really betting on teams never learning how to defend against top players in this environment, or any other changes that may curtail scoring levels.

 

[The Panther]

The guy to watch - along with McDavid - is MacKinnon. If he has decent health, he will likely reach 1500 points at a younger age than Crosby and Ovechkin.

MacKinnon is awesome, but I don't know about this...

Crosby and Ovechkin were elite-level scorers from their first seasons, but MacKinnon wasn't until his 5th.

He's sitting one shy of 900 points, but he'll be 29 to start next season. This is the age when most scorers have typically started to slow down a bit. Who knows how MacKinnon will age, but I think it's always very unlikely that someone will continue to produce as well as Sid or Ovi (as a goal-scorer, anyway) through the 30s.

Almost certainly, this season will go down as an outlier in his career, offensively. If we go by his 2017-18 through 2022-23 scoring rates (which are probably more typical of his prime level output), he averaged 1.35 points per game, or 111 points per 82 games.

That's fantastic, but... only in two of those six seasons did he manage to play the full season.

I guess it's just a question of how long we expect he can maintian that 111-point pace, and if he can stay healthy. But even if he stays healthy, my guess would be that he drops from a 111-point pace to around a 95-100 point pace over the next four or five seasons.

 

[The Panther]

In 1985-86, Wayne Gretzky had a 50+ goal season and 54 secondary assists. That's a lot of goals and a lot of secondary assists.

If you take away every single goal he scored that season, and take away every single secondary assist he scored that season... he still scored 109 points.

 

[jigglysquishy]

Where MacKinnon will get bit with in the top 10 is that he will have to also pass Crosby, Ovechkin, and McDavid to get in, while Crosby just had to pass Esposito.

Strong chance it will be Lemieux’s 1723 points that is the marker when MacKinnon is up. And it's just that much harder than Esposito's 1590.

I think Ovechkin slides in, but gets ousted by McDavid.

 

[kadertot]

Has anybody else noticed that in Jim Playfair’s two career games as an Oiler, Gretzky scored 8 points in both games. His only career 8 point games. Gretz just needed Jim there more! A true good luck charm. Risto Jalo also played only 3 games for the 80s oilers and one of the games Jalo played was Paul Coffey’s 8 point night. I love these random player stories!

(Discovered on Hockey-Reference)

 

[The Panther]

A few days ago, the Edmonton Oilers won—on home ice—game one of their series with the L.A. Kings.

It was the first time in 12,409 days that the Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice. The most recent time it had occurred was on May 2nd, 1990.

Since that time, the Oilers have been to the third round four times, and to the Finals once, but had not won any game one on home ice for 34 years.

 

[ES]

A few days ago, the Edmonton Oilers won—on home ice—game one of their series with the L.A. Kings.

It was the first time in 12,409 days that the Oilers won the opening game of a playoff series on their home ice. The most recent time it had occurred was on May 2nd, 1990.

Since that time, the Oilers have been to the third round four times, and to the Finals once, but had not won any game one on home ice for 34 years.

Had to look how many series they had started on home ice and it was six:

1991 CF North Stars
2017 R1 Sharks
2020 QR Blackhawks
2021 R1 Jets
2022 R1 Kings
2023 R1 Kings

 

[Kahvi]

March 20, 1979 Edmonton Oilers played Team Finland B-squad (some best Finnish players were still playing SM-liiga playoffs) in an exhibition game. Or that what Finns thought, but for Oilers that was actually WHA regular season game, because Indianapolis had folder and they needed to get one more regular season game.

Might have been the first time Glen Sather saw Jari Kurri play.

Edmonton Oilers–Finland 20.3.1979​

8–4 (3–1, 4–0, 1–3)

1st. period: 2.11 Jouni Rinne (Harri Tuohimaa) 0–1; 10.38 Dave Semenko (Ron Chippefield, Al Hamilton) 1–1; 11.27 Steve Carlson 2–1; 19.55 Risto Siltanen (Brett Callighen, Peter Driscoll) 3–1.

2nd period: 22.12 Stan Weir (Hamilton, Dave Hunter) 4–1; 22.29 Dennis Sobchuk (Hamilton, Weir) 5–1; 22.52 Weir (Hamilton, Hunter) 6–1; 29.44 Wayne Gretzky (Blair MacDonald, Siltanen) 7–1.

3rd period: 43.29 Ismo Villa (Rinne, Tuohimaa) 7–2; 52.15 Jouni Peltonen (Jukka Koskilahti) 7–3; 55.43 Sobchuk (Dave Langevin, Paul Shmyr) 8–3; 59.08 Juha Jyrkkiö (Matti Hagman) 8–4.

Finland played two more game during their NA tour, but those were exhibition games for both teams.