Obscure hockey facts/stats

[shadow1]

Antero Niittymaki had a career record of 95-86-31, with a 2.95 GAA and .902 SV%.

His record against the Atlanta Thrashers was 17-0-0, with a 1.76 GAA and .940 SV%.

 

[abo9]

Antero Niittymaki had a career record of 95-86-31, with a 2.95 GAA and .902 SV%.

His record against the Atlanta Thrashers was 17-0-0, with a 1.76 GAA and .940 SV%.

Thrashers fans must have thought he was the next coming of Hasek

 

[Iapyi]

On Feb 2/65 the NHL adopted a rule that all teams must dress 2 goalies for the 65 playoffs. It becomes a regular season practice for the 65/66 season.

 

[Laphroaig]

In the 1972-73 season Dean Prentice and Eddie Shack became the first two players in NHL history to top 20 goals in a season for five different teams.

 

[Iapyi]

In the 64/65 season Roger Crozier had quite the NHL debut :

- replaced the legendary Terry Sawchuk
- led the NHL with 40 wins and 6 shutouts
- won the Calder Trophy
- last goalie to play in all of his teams games in a season [70]

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

Sweet home…not
I believe Gerry O’Flaherty is still the only player in NHL history who, in a season of 20 or more goals, scored at least 80 percent of his goals on the road. That happened in 1974/75 with Vancouver. He scored 21 of his 25 goals away from Vancouver.

Cutting it close...
Only two NHL players have scored their 100th NHL point with less than one minute left of their last regular season game.
Blaine Stoughton (Hartford) got his 100th point on a first assist with 6 seconds to go of the last game in 1980 (game 80).
John Tonelli (NY Islanders) scored with 48 seconds to go of the last game in 1985. (also game 80)

Happy birthday…
Tim Jackman (NY Islanders) scored 16 seconds into a game on his 28th birthday in 2009. That’s the quickest goal ever scored by an NHL player in a game played on his birthday. It was 16 seconds faster than Thomas Eriksson on his 24th birthday in 1983.

Hard to believe…
Jean Beliveau have scored the most career regular season goals in the NHL (507) without ever scoring a shorthanded goal. (He had two assists though). Rod Gilbert on the other hand did not register a single shorthanded point in his NHL career, despite scoring 1021 regular season points.

I can score for any team…
In 1998 Geoff Courtnall became the first NHL player to score 75 goals for four different teams. (Boston, Washington, Vancouver and St. Louis). Eleven years later Jason Arnott became the second NHL’er to duplicate this feat (Edmonton, New Jersey, Dallas and Nashville).


Question for the obscure stats geeks:
Has there been a longer span between fighting majors in the NHL than Mario Lemieux’s 15 years and 235 days between fights? (1987-2003).

 

[Iapyi]

Bill Quakenbush played 14 NHL seasons playing 774 games and collected a mere 95 PIMs.

Highest PIMs in one season was 26 in 46-47.

Won the Byng in 48-49 playing the entire schedule without a penalty and went a total of 131 games before incurring an infraction.

His average of 0.12 PIM per game is a record not approached by a dman before or since {I think, lol}

 

[brachyrynchos]

Chicago plays a 'home' game at Nassau Coliseum.
April 7, 1977 NHL playoffs, game 2.
Hawks couldn't play at Chicago Stadium due to the venue being booked by Led Zeppelin. It would've been a bit expensive to reschedule the concerts so Chicago would end up playing at home on the road. Isles would take the series 2-0.

 

[Crosstraffic]

Chicago plays a 'home' game at Nassau Coliseum.
April 7, 1977 NHL playoffs, game 2.
Hawks couldn't play at Chicago Stadium due to the venue being booked by Led Zeppelin. It would've been a bit expensive to reschedule the concerts so Chicago would end up playing at home on the road. Isles would take the series 2-0.

Here is a bootleg recording of that night, they played Chicago Stadium 4 nights in 5 days, 6th,7th,9th,10th. The Bulls played home games on the 5th and 8th. Tix looked to be $9 and $10. Even worse, the games were NOT televised in the Chicago area. Cheap ass Bill Wirtz hard at work.

 

[brachyrynchos]

Here is a bootleg recording of that night, they played Chicago Stadium 4 nights in 5 days, 6th,7th,9th,10th. The Bulls played home games on the 5th and 8th. Tix looked to be $9 and $10. Even worse, the games were NOT televised in the Chicago area. Cheap ass Bill Wirtz hard at work.

Actually sounds pretty good for a 43yr old bootleg, Thanks! I have something to listen to as I wait for the noon games.
To not air the game...ridiculous. Cheers.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Consistency

Jean Ratelle:

1967-68 74 games 32 goals 46 assists 78 points
1968-69 75 games 32 goals 46 assists 78 points
1969-70 75 games 32 goals 42 assists 74 points

Chris Chelios Norris trophy seasons:

1988-89 80 games 15 goals 58 assists 73 points
1992-93 84 games 15 goals 58 assists 73 points
1995-96 81 games 14 goals 58 assists 72 points

 

[brachyrynchos]

Consistency

Jean Ratelle:

1967-68 74 games 32 goals 46 assists 78 points
1968-69 75 games 32 goals 46 assists 78 points
1969-70 75 games 32 goals 42 assists 74 points

Chris Chelios Norris trophy seasons:

1988-89 80 games 15 goals 58 assists 73 points
1992-93 84 games 15 goals 58 assists 73 points
1995-96 81 games 14 goals 58 assists 72 points

Makes me think of Todd Krygier. Certainly not on the same level as Ratelle and Chelios but a pretty good skater.
'89-90: HFD 30 points (18-12)
'90-91: HFD 30 points (13-17)
'91-92: WSH 30 points (13-17)
'92-93: WSH 23 points (11-12)
'93-94: WSH 30 points (12-18)

 

[The Panther]

Consistency

Jean Ratelle:

1967-68 74 games 32 goals 46 assists 78 points
1968-69 75 games 32 goals 46 assists 78 points
1969-70 75 games 32 goals 42 assists 74 points

Chris Chelios Norris trophy seasons:

1988-89 80 games 15 goals 58 assists 73 points
1992-93 84 games 15 goals 58 assists 73 points
1995-96 81 games 14 goals 58 assists 72 points

C'mon, nothing beats Mats Sundin in Toronto. From 1995 to 2007-08:

47 in 47
83 in 76
94 in 82
74 in 82 (first real season of DPE)
83 in 82
73 in 73
74 in 82
80 in 82
72 in 75
75 in 81
78 in 70
76 in 75
78 in 74

That is absolutely insane.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

C'mon, nothing beats Mats Sundin in Toronto. From 1995 to 2007-08:

47 in 47
83 in 76
94 in 82
74 in 82 (first real season of DPE)
83 in 82
73 in 73
74 in 82
80 in 82
72 in 75
75 in 81
78 in 70
76 in 75
78 in 74

That is absolutely insane.

He also had 70 in 77 for Toronto in the playoffs.

 

[Iapyi]

1936 - 1937 season Earl Robertson fills in for injured goalie Normie Smith and posts two shutouts in the finals as Detroit became the first U.S.-based team to win back-to-back cups. They beat the Rangers 3-2 in the finals.

Smith had played all 48 regular-season games.

48

25

14

9

102

2.05

6

2980

2.54

9

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

1	Normie Smith	28	5		3	1		6	0	-6		1.28	1	282
2	Earl Robertson	26	6		3	2		8	0	-8		1.41	2	340
3	Jimmy Franks	22	1		0	1		2	0	-2		4.06	0	30

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Dissonance Jr]

Zdeno Chara recently hit a very obscure milestone and I don't think anyone noticed. Last year he became only the second player ever to score at least 200 goals in his NHL career without ever having a single 20-goal season. The first guy to do it was Larry Robinson.

 

[The Panther]

Dominik Hašek was a bit dialed-in in December 1997:

Hašek faced 388 shots against him that month, posting a .946 with six shut-outs!

The only real blemish on his month was a game in Dallas, where he and Steve Shields split the duties, each getting lit-up as the Sabres lost 8-4. Hašek had a dreadful .667 in that game. If you remove it from his month, he otherwise had a .957.

 

[Prsut18]

In 1998/1999 Dallas Stars had a goalie duo with both guys nicknamed "Eddie"

 

[The Pale King]

In 1998/1999 Dallas Stars had a goalie duo with both guys nicknamed "Eddie"

In the 2012-13 season, the only goalies to start for the Kings were both named Jonathon (Quick & Bernier).

Some people swear Bernier went by Jon, others would were adamant he used the moniker Jonathon exclusively. It may be the spookiest hockey-related Mandela Effect I've seen.

 

[The Panther]

Full credit to Robert Gordon Orr's "Obscure Stats" thread for this one, but according to him, Wayne Gretzky scored 3 or more points in a game 459 times.

So, that one has to be added to the Top-10 most unbelievable Gretzky records.

Is that actually accurate? That is nearly six full NHL seasons equivalent where he would be scoring 3 points or more in every game.


EDIT: Okay, I checked to confirm. Robert Orr Gordon Orr was correct. Here's the breakdown of Wayne's three+ point games, per season:

1979-80 = 19 games
1980-81 = 28 games
1981-82 = 38 games
1982-83 = 37 games
1983-84 = 37 games (74 games played)
1984-85 = 40 games
1985-86 = 40 games
1986-87 = 35 games
1987-88 = 27 games (64 games played)

1988-89 = 27 games
1989-90 = 22 games (73 games played)
1990-91 = 23 games
1991-92 = 19 games (74 games played)
1992-93 = 8 games (45 games played)
1993-94 = 17 games
1995 = 2 games (48 game season)
1995-96 = 14 games

1996-97 = 8 games
1997-98 = 11 games
1998-99 = 7 games (70 games played)

In addition, Gretzky had another 59 games in the playoffs of three or more points! So, that's a grand total of 518 NHL games in which Wayne racked up three or more points. That is... bizarre.

In the 1985 playoffs, he had 9 games with three or more points. He had 8 in the 1988 playoffs. Surprisingly, he had 5 in the Kings' short run in 1989, but he got killed by Calgary at even strength. In L.A.'s run to the Finals in 1993, Wayne had 7 games of three or more points.

The season with the most, overall, then is easily 1984-85. So, that was 40 games in the regular season and another 9 in the playoffs -- which was 1 of every 2 playoff games. That's 49 games of three or more points, and the Oilers played 98 games overall. In other words, for that whole season plus playoffs, there was a 50% chance every game that Gretzky would get three or more points. Incidentally, Gretzky was +100 in regular season games in 1984-85 in which he scored three or more points, which means he was '0' (even) in the other 40 games. When he scored three or more points, the Oilers were 34-5-1, and when he scored two or fewer they were 15-15-10.

The team break-down of his three-or-more point games is as follows:

Edmonton
- 301 games (regular season)
- 39 games (playoffs)

L.A.
- 129 games (regular season)
- 16 games (playoffs)

St.Louis
- 3 games (regular season)
- 2 games (playoffs)

New York
- 26 games (regular season)
- 2 games (playoffs)

The final 3-or-more point game of Wayne's career was on February 15th, 1999, at Nashville, when he picked up five assists in the Rangers' 7-4 win at Nashville Arena.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Full credit to Robert Gordon Orr's "Obscure Stats" thread for this one, but according to him, Wayne Gretzky scored 3 or more points in a game 459 times.

So, that one has to be added to the Top-10 most unbelievable Gretzky records.

Is that actually accurate? That is nearly six full NHL seasons equivalent where he would be scoring 3 points or more in every game.


EDIT: Okay, I checked to confirm. Robert Orr Gordon Orr was correct. Here's the breakdown of Wayne's three+ point games, per season:

1979-80 = 19 games
1980-81 = 28 games
1981-82 = 38 games
1982-83 = 37 games
1983-84 = 37 games (74 games played)
1984-85 = 40 games
1985-86 = 40 games
1986-87 = 35 games
1987-88 = 27 games (64 games played)

1988-89 = 27 games
1989-90 = 22 games (73 games played)
1990-91 = 23 games
1991-92 = 19 games (74 games played)
1992-93 = 8 games (45 games played)
1993-94 = 17 games
1995 = 2 games (48 game season)
1995-96 = 14 games

1996-97 = 8 games
1997-98 = 11 games
1998-99 = 7 games (70 games played)

In addition, Gretzky had another 59 games in the playoffs of three or more points! So, that's a grand total of 518 NHL games in which Wayne racked up three or more points. That is... bizarre.

In the 1985 playoffs, he had 9 games with three or more points. He had 8 in the 1988 playoffs. Surprisingly, he had 5 in the Kings' short run in 1989, but he got killed by Calgary at even strength. In L.A.'s run to the Finals in 1993, Wayne had 7 games of three or more points.

The season with the most, overall, then is easily 1984-85. So, that was 40 games in the regular season and another 9 in the playoffs -- which was 1 of every 2 playoff games. That's 49 games of three or more points, and the Oilers played 98 games overall. In other words, for that whole season plus playoffs, there was a 50% chance every game that Gretzky would get three or more points. Incidentally, Gretzky was +100 in regular season games in 1984-85 in which he scored three or more points, which means he was '0' (even) in the other 40 games. When he scored three or more points, the Oilers were 34-5-1, and when he scored two or fewer they were 15-15-10.

The team break-down of his three-or-more point games is as follows:

Edmonton
- 301 games (regular season)
- 39 games (playoffs)

L.A.
- 129 games (regular season)
- 16 games (playoffs)

St.Louis
- 3 games (regular season)
- 2 games (playoffs)

New York
- 26 games (regular season)
- 2 games (playoffs)

The final 3-or-more point game of Wayne's career was on February 15th, 1999, at Nashville, when he picked up five assists in the Rangers' 7-4 win at Nashville Arena.

For context (not an exhaustive list):

• Gretzky - 459
• Lemieux - 272
• Dionne - 202
• Jagr - 195
• Esposito - 183
• Yzerman - 172
• Coffey - 169
• Kurri - 164
• Howe - 162
• Lafleur - 158
• Sakic - 158
• Trottier - 156
  
• Mikita - 147
• Hawerchuk - 146
• Francis - 147
• Crosby - 145
• Bossy - 144
  
• Stastny - 138
  
• Hull Jr - 130
• Oates - 130
• Beliveau - 126
• Selanne - 126
• Gilmour - 124
• Hull Sr - 121
  
• Bourque - 120
• Ovechkin - 113
• Orr - 111
• Thornton - 111
• Perreault - 111
• Clarke - 110
• Forsberg - 105
• Malkin - 101
• Gartner - 101
• Potvin - 98
• Mahovlich - 95
• Iginla - 95
• Fedorov - 94
• Ullman - 93
• MacInnis - 91
• Kane - 88 (how fitting)
• Bathgate - 85
• Richard - 83
• St. Louis - 74
• Bure - 73
• Geoffrion - 71
• Leetch - 66
• Lindsay - 59
• Park - 58
• McDavid - 54
• Lidstrom - 54
• Robinson - 51

These numbers obviously aren't directly comparable year to year and favours players who peaked in high-scoring eras... but it's still interesting.

 

[The Panther]

As we all know, the Oilers in spring 1988 went 16-2 on the road to the Cup (one other game was cancelled mid-way through it when the teams were tied). So far, that's the best record any 16-win Cup team has assembled.

Going 16-2, the Oilers played 1,136 minutes of hockey in total, and during that period they trailed their opponents for a total of about 216 minutes and 56 seconds. This means that for 19% of the total playoff run, the Oilers trailed their opponent, and for 81% of the playoff run, they were tied or ahead.

Weirdly, the team the Oilers spent the most time trailing was the weakest team they faced -- Winnipeg.

But what's impressive is that against Boston, in the Finals, the Oilers trailed for only 14 minutes and 40 seconds, and all of that was after they already had a 3-0 series lead. In fact, if you don't count the "lost" partial game that got wiped from the books, the Oilers trailed for only 1.7% of the entire time of the Cup Finals (5 minutes-and-change early in game four).

I suspect the Oilers in '85 would have a similar number, but I haven't dug it out. So, then, I'm wondering, which teams have had comparable / better runs of time in the playoff without trailing? (Probably Montreal in 1977? Islanders in 1981?)

 

[Vujtek]

One of the very few offensive stat where Gretzky isn't #1 or even in top-5: most 5-on-5 goals in the playoffs:

64 Mark Messier
62 Jari Kurri
62 Glenn Anderson
61 Maurice Richard
59 Brett Hull
54 Wayne Gretzky
53 Claude Lemieux
(no else with 50 or more)

(Note: the actual # may be less for some due to goals scored on delayed penalty or early goalie pulling scenarios as those are impossible to tell from early boxscores but the possible effect of those is certainly very minimal)

--------

Of players with 50 or more points on 5-on-5 play, besides Gretzky (208 GP 54+132=186 for a PPG of 0.894) there are only two players with 5-on-5 PPG over .700:

PPG 0.737 Steve Shutt (99 GP 35+ 38= 73)
PPG 0.708 Ken Linseman (113 GP 30+ 50= 80)

 

[The Panther]

One of the very few offensive stat where Gretzky isn't #1 or even in top-5: most 5-on-5 goals in the playoffs:

64 Mark Messier
62 Jari Kurri
62 Glenn Anderson
61 Maurice Richard
59 Brett Hull
54 Wayne Gretzky
53 Claude Lemieux
(no else with 50 or more)

(Note: the actual # may be less for some due to goals scored on delayed penalty or early goalie pulling scenarios as those are impossible to tell from early boxscores but the possible effect of those is certainly very minimal)

--------

Of players with 50 or more points on 5-on-5 play, besides Gretzky (208 GP 54+132=186 for a PPG of 0.894) there are only two players with 5-on-5 PPG over .700:

PPG 0.737 Steve Shutt (99 GP 35+ 38= 73)
PPG 0.708 Ken Linseman (113 GP 30+ 50= 80)

Interesting. Gretzky scored 75 at even strength and Messier scored 71, and Wayne scored 12 short-handed and Messier 14, so I guess the difference here (and the different with the four in between them on your list) is that Gretzky scored 11 (?) goals at 4-on-4. Is that possible? That seems kind of high for being just between 1980 and 1985 (and it would have to be 11 of 36 total at 4-on-4!) but I guess it's feasible.

(Gretzky also scored on a playoff penalty-shot in 1984... does that count at ES...?)

 

[The Panther]

NOTE: I said above "between 1980 and 1985" for the missing 11 even-strength goals because those are the only playoffs of Gretzky's career when offsetting minor penalties resulted in four-on-four play. But I should correct myself here, because it's of course possible that he scored the odd four-on-four goal later, when two penalties were called at different times but overlapped.