Obscure hockey facts/stats

[GRob83]

Of the 45 players with 500+ Goals, Jean Beliveau is the only one who was never credited with a Shorthanded Goal.

 

[Iapyi]

The USA blatantly cheated in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics by sending/playing professionals. It took an American journalist to finally admit it.

Leading up to the 1932 Olympics they were at it again by violating Olympics rule. The Canadians, once again showing their humbleness and good sportsmanship with their impeccable manners didn't launch an official protest and of course won the tournament again.

 

[Sadekuuro]

Of the 45 players with 500+ Goals, Jean Beliveau is the only one who was never credited with a Shorthanded Goal.

Interesting... I remember reading that the player with the most goals with none shorthanded was Steve Shutt, but that does appear to be correct.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Well, today we can add Patrick Marleau to the NHL obscure fact database.

 

[Hynh]

Of the 45 players with 500+ Goals, Jean Beliveau is the only one who was never credited with a Shorthanded Goal.

Just looking at active players who haven't scored a SHG I think Kane might join him

 

[tarheelhockey]

The USA blatantly cheated in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics

The USA didn’t even enter a team in the 1928 Olympics.

 

[Big Phil]

Of the 45 players with 500+ Goals, Jean Beliveau is the only one who was never credited with a Shorthanded Goal.

They didn't start tracking the power play goals against stat until the 1960 season or so according to hockeyreference.com (although they are probably working on that as we speak) but I am surprised that Beliveau never killed penalties. He does not have a shorthanded goal in his career, but two short handed assists. My guess is that there was a time he passed it to someone who scored right at the end of his opponent's power play (eg. Toe Blake puts him out there with 15 seconds left shorthanded assuming there is no harm left). Upon further review it surprises me that Beliveau never killed penalties. Howe did in Detroit, but even Henri Richard never killed penalties. He's never credited with a short handed goal either. It looks like Claude Provost and especially Don Marshall were often used on those Habs teams in the 1960s to kill penalties.

I guess the coach we think of who popularized star players killing penalties was Glen Sather when he had Gretzky and Kurri and Messier at different times doing it. But there were still stars who did it before. Hull and Mikita to an extent, Bobby Clarke did it a lot, even Phil Esposito was there for penalty killing, although probably more as an offensive threat in that role. Lafleur didn't do it much either.

 

[Big Phil]

Here is something not as much obscure as "You're kidding me!" sort of thing. Just when you thought you heard every Gretzky stat. Here is another one. Gretzky had 30 PPG against he was on the ice for in 1984. But he scored 23 shorthanded points (12 goals, 11 assists). Can you imagine that? He was that dominant where he was basically just as dangerous scoring that year SHORTHANDED as the other team was on the power play. That's probably the best ratio in his career during that season.

 

[plusandminus]

Here is something not as much obscure as "You're kidding me!" sort of thing. Just when you thought you heard every Gretzky stat. Here is another one. Gretzky had 30 PPG against he was on the ice for in 1984. But he scored 23 shorthanded points (12 goals, 11 assists). Can you imagine that? He was that dominant where he was basically just as dangerous scoring that year SHORTHANDED as the other team was on the power play. That's probably the best ratio in his career during that season.

I've written about it. Yes, very impressive. I think this is Gretzky's best season offensively. He had 153 points in first 51 games of the season, having scored at least one point in each of those games. He clearly led the league goals, assists, points - overall, ES, PP, SH. (I think he missed out on one of those, but don't remember which one. Edit: Probably PP assists, where he finished 5th after the season was completed) Outstanding +/- too. And EDM was on their way of having the best regular sesaon perhaps ever by an NHL team. But then he got injured, EDM lost some games.

So at worst, his goal differential playing short handed was 23-30. He might also have been on ice for some SH goal where he didn't register a point, if so making it even better.

I also think especially Coffey deserves credit.

 

[Big Phil]

I've written about it. Yes, very impressive. I think this is Gretzky's best season offensively. He had 153 points in first 51 games of the season, having scored at least one point in each of those games. He clearly led the league goals, assists, points - overall, ES, PP, SH. (I think he missed out on one of those, but don't remember which one. Edit: Probably PP assists, where he finished 5th after the season was completed) Outstanding +/- too. And EDM was on their way of having the best regular sesaon perhaps ever by an NHL team. But then he got injured, EDM lost some games.

So at worst, his goal differential playing short handed was 23-30. He might also have been on ice for some SH goal where he didn't register a point, if so making it even better.

I also think especially Coffey deserves credit.

Coffey deserves more credit than he regularly gets. I am one of the guys who defends him often.

Yeah, I didn't realize the skid the Oilers went on after the streak. Gretzky scores in the first 51 games of the season. Then in Game #52 of all teams the Kings stop his streak. He must have been nursing some injury, or got hurt in that game, because he misses the next 6. The Oilers went 1-5 during that time he missed. One of the games was an 11-0 bombing in Hartford. I guess to be fair, Kurri and Gretzky were both missing in that game. But even so, Edmonton still had their other stars playing. That's just a shellacking! Ron Francis scored 4 goals that game for Hartford. In the boxscore with the penalties it looks pretty normal. One thing to point out is that the Whalers scored 6 power play goals that day, 4 of them on a 5 minute elbowing major from Kevin McClelland. Anyway, the 1977 Habs lost 8 games all year but one of them was a drubbing in St. Louis by the score of 7-2.

 

[The Panther]

About the Edmonton short-handed goals thing, I wish the League would rank Penalty Killing while taking short-handed goals into account (my understanding is that they don't). I've never understood this. If you look at the 80s' Oilers PK stats, it's pretty good (really good in 1988-89, for example), but then if you factor in short-handed goals I'm sure they're the #1 team of the decade on the PK.

I would tend to think scoring a goal while short-handed negates a PP goal against in the same game, no? But the NHL doesn't count it like that.

 

[Hynh]

About the Edmonton short-handed goals thing, I wish the League would rank Penalty Killing while taking short-handed goals into account (my understanding is that they don't). I've never understood this. If you look at the 80s' Oilers PK stats, it's pretty good (really good in 1988-89, for example), but then if you factor in short-handed goals I'm sure they're the #1 team of the decade on the PK.

I would tend to think scoring a goal while short-handed negates a PP goal against in the same game, no? But the NHL doesn't count it like that.

They do, it's listed under net PK% (and net PP% does the same for PPs). Your hunch is correct. 1979-80 to 1988-89 Oilers were 5th by PK% but 1st by net PK%

NHL Stats

 

[The Panther]

They do, it's listed under net PK% (and net PP% does the same for PPs). Your hunch is correct. 1979-80 to 1988-89 Oilers were 5th by PK% but 1st by net PK%

NHL Stats

OK, thanks, that's a cool stat!

But I think when the League/media ranks individual teams' PK within a season, they're not using this metric, right? They're just using goals-against vs. PP-opportunities against...?

 

[Hynh]

OK, thanks, that's a cool stat!

But I think when the League/media ranks individual teams' PK within a season, they're not using this metric, right? They're just using goals-against vs. PP-opportunities against...?

I'm pretty the only time they would discuss it is if it makes one of their darlings look better

 

[Hockey Outsider]

About the Edmonton short-handed goals thing, I wish the League would rank Penalty Killing while taking short-handed goals into account (my understanding is that they don't). I've never understood this. If you look at the 80s' Oilers PK stats, it's pretty good (really good in 1988-89, for example), but then if you factor in short-handed goals I'm sure they're the #1 team of the decade on the PK.

I would tend to think scoring a goal while short-handed negates a PP goal against in the same game, no? But the NHL doesn't count it like that.

The NHL has finally started doing this. They have two stats - penalty kill (which is the number you've grown up seeing - PP goals against divided by times shorthanded) and "net penalty kill" (which is similar, except any shorthanded goals for are subtracted from PP goals against).

As an extreme example, the 1984 Oilers had a 79.7% penalty kill - above average, but nothing special. But once you consider that they scored 36 shorthanded goals for (relative to 77 PP goals against), their net penalty kill soars to 89.2%. That's the 3rd best result out of 359 teams between 1978 (that's as far back as the data goes) and 1994 (after which, scoring plummeted and PK rates soared).

Link - NHL Stats

EDIT - Hynh beat me to it

 

[The Panther]

Interestingly, that stat (net PK%) that Hynh noted goes back only to 1977-78 on NHL.com.

The Oilers reached 89.2% on the PK in 1983-84, the season they scored a whopping 36 short-handed goals.

Amazingly, the Red Wings under Jacques Demers had the best net PK% (88.3%) in the NHL in 1987-88, just two seasons after having a historically bad team defense. Shows why Jacques won back-to-back coach of the year awards...

In 1990-91, Washington reaches 90.1%, the first time any club reached 90% since at least 1977-78. (Sadly, this site doesn't calculate 1976-77, but you wonder what Montreal was that season!)

Buffalo being #1 in 1993-94 and 1995 is a bit surprising, but then again Hasek.

Detroit at 92.8% by 1995-96, just before high-scoring plummets, so that's pretty impressive.

Washington at 93.1% in 1997-98, as the full-on Dead Puck Era arrives. But I think that is the best result on the PK between 1977-78 and 2005-06, at least.

 

[The Panther]

The NHL has finally started doing this. They have two stats - penalty kill (which is the number you've grown up seeing - PP goals against divided by times shorthanded) and "net penalty kill" (which is similar, except any shorthanded goals for are subtracted from PP goals against).

As an extreme example, the 1984 Oilers had a 79.7% penalty kill - above average, but nothing special. But once you consider that they scored 36 shorthanded goals for (relative to 77 PP goals against), their net penalty kill soars to 89.2%. That's the 3rd best result out of 359 teams between 1978 (that's as far back as the data goes) and 1994 (after which, scoring plummeted and PK rates soared).

Link - NHL Stats

EDIT - Hynh beat me to it

Good stuff, thanks!

 

[Iapyi]

The USA didn’t even enter a team in the 1928 Olympics.

Thanks. The source material I got the information from is proving to be quite unreliable. Recently I've noticed other errors in it as well.

 

[frisco]

Game One of the 2006 series between Ottawa and Buffalo was a true classic. The Sabres set the record for least time between the tying goal in regulation (Tim Connolly 19:49 of 3rd) and OT winner (Chris Drury 0:18). The 29 second span in the 7-6 Buffalo win, as I mentioned is the fastest ever, although I had to track this manually myself at NHL.com. I didn't find any other mark even close to this.

My Best-Carey

 

[Kahvi]

Mentioned this already on the Prospects boards, but Tarmo Reunanen has scored at least one point this season in four different leagues: Liiga, Mestis, AHL and NHL.

I'd think even playing in 5 different leagues during one season is really rare, let alone getting a point in each league

 

[Big Phil]

About the Edmonton short-handed goals thing, I wish the League would rank Penalty Killing while taking short-handed goals into account (my understanding is that they don't). I've never understood this. If you look at the 80s' Oilers PK stats, it's pretty good (really good in 1988-89, for example), but then if you factor in short-handed goals I'm sure they're the #1 team of the decade on the PK.

I would tend to think scoring a goal while short-handed negates a PP goal against in the same game, no? But the NHL doesn't count it like that.

That's weird, why was 1989 their best year killing penalties? This is the first year without #99.

 

[The Panther]

That's weird, why was 1989 their best year killing penalties? This is the first year without #99.

It might be because Gretzky and Coffey weren't there. After October, the Oilers were a sub-.500 club that season, and they probably realized they had to button it down while short-handed. Also, Kurri and Tikkanen were really in the zone as PK-ers that season.

 

[frisco]

Mentioned this already on the Prospects boards, but Tarmo Reunanen has scored at least one point this season in four different leagues: Liiga, Mestis, AHL and NHL.

I'd think even playing in 5 different leagues during one season is really rare, let alone getting a point in each league

Reminds me of Jagr in the 1994-95 labor-shortened season. Played in five leagues including an 11-point game in German2.

My Best-Carey

 

[kaiser matias]

Mentioned this already on the Prospects boards, but Tarmo Reunanen has scored at least one point this season in four different leagues: Liiga, Mestis, AHL and NHL.

I'd think even playing in 5 different leagues during one season is really rare, let alone getting a point in each league

Similar idea: Kristers Gudlevskis is the only player to have played in the ECHL, AHL, NHL, Olympics, and World Championships in the same season (2013-14). Won a game in everything but the Olympics (though he did help Latvia nearly upset Canada).

 

[frisco]

Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby started their careers 16 years ago and have dominated the league throughout that period of time. However, if their careers ended today they both would have less points than Pierre Turgeon who the HOF committee has not deemed worthy of induction.

My Best-Carey