Obscure hockey facts/stats

Status
Not open for further replies.

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,114
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
The Maple Leafs and Rangers never had an Art Ross trophy winner.
That is really, really staggering.

Especially when you consider that a club like Edmonton (1979-80 --> ) is about to finish its fifth season with the #1 and #2 scorer in the League on its roster.

1983-84
Gretzky & Coffey
1984-85
Gretzky & Kurri
1986-87
Gretzky & Kurri
2019-20
Draisaitl & McDavid
2020-21
McDavid & Draisaitl
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,114
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
The first instance was on January 4th, 1975 - when both Phil Esposito and Guy Lafleur did that. And no - it wasn't against each other. Boston played Minnesota that night, and the Habs the Capitals.
In fairnes, the Habs vs. Capitals in 1975 is like an average NHL team today playing a bunch of 12-year-olds. Here's how Washington (the worst team of all time) did vs. Montreal that season:

Win/Loss
0 wins, 6 losses
Goal differential
9 - 49

Included was an 11-1 loss, a 10-1 loss, and a 10-2 loss.

But yeah, it is surprising that 5 PP points in a game hadn't occurred before that.
 

Vujtek

Registered User
Oct 7, 2007
3,540
627
Sidney Crosby tied an NHL-record earlier this year - most goals scored within the opening minute of a game. Crosby has now scored 13 such goals, tieing the record with Mark Messier. Fitting that these two natural leaders are top of the list, something about setting the tone of the game with a stat like this!

Next up in that stat with 12 first minute goals? Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and Dave Taylor.
 

Vujtek

Registered User
Oct 7, 2007
3,540
627
The Maple Leafs and Rangers never had an Art Ross trophy winner.

They both have several retroactive Art Ross winners (aka. scoring leaders before Art Ross Trophy was first awarded in 1947-48 season), though:

NYR: Bill Cook (1927, 1933) and Bryan Hextall Sr. (1942).
TOR: Babe Dye (1923, 1925), Ace Bailey (1929), Busher Jackson (1932), Charlie Conacher (1934, 1935) and Gordie Drillon (1938).
 

Kahvi

Registered User
Sponsor
Jun 4, 2007
4,900
3,540
Alberga
Panthers - Lightning confirmed for a first round matchup, but they have two regular season games left. So potentially 9 games in a row.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Le Champion

kaiser matias

Registered User
Mar 22, 2004
4,708
1,848
I keep seeing references to McDavid being the ninth player to score 100 points in 53 games. However few places are noting those other eight players, so I'll include them here for reference:

Gretzky (11 times)
Lemieux (6 times)
Esposito (2 times)
Kurri (2 times)
Dionne
Yzerman
Nicholls
Jagr
 

Vujtek

Registered User
Oct 7, 2007
3,540
627
Filip Hronek finished the season as Detroit's leading points scorer with just 26 points. That's less than half a point per games scheduled for the team and is one of the rare occasions in NHL history where this has happened.

Teams leading point scorer recording a half a point or less per games scheduled for the team:

.273 P/GP 12 points Harold Darragh/Hib Milks, Pittsburgh Pirates 1928-29 (44 GP schedule)
.295 P/GP 13 points Vic Ripley, Chicago Black Hawks 1928-29 (44 GP schedule)
.364 P/GP 16 points Billy Burch, New York Americans 1928-29 (44 GP schedule)
.409 P/GP 18 points Harry Oliver, Boston Bruins 1927-28 (44 GP schedule)
.432 P/GP 19 points Normie Himes, New York Americans 1927-28 (44 GP schedule)
.432 P/GP 19 points Frank Finnigan, Ottawa Senators 1928-29 (44 GP schedule)
.463 P/GP 38 points Nick Bjugstad, Florida Panthers 2013-14 (82 GP schedule)
.464 P/GP 26 points Filip Hronek, Detroit Red Wings 2020-21 (56 GP schedule)
.476 P/GP 39 points Scott Pellerin, Minnesota Wild 2000-01 (82 GP schedule)
.477 P/GP 21 points Nels Stewart, Montreal Maroons 1926-27 (44 GP schedule)
.477 P/GP 21 points Hib Milks, Pittsburgh Pirates 1927-28 (44 GP schedule)
.488 P/GP 40 points Paul Ysebaert, Tampa Bay Lightning 1997-98 (82 GP schedule)
.500 P/GP 22 points Johnny Sheppard, Detroit Cougars 1926-27 (44 GP schedule)
.500 P/GP 22 points Hib Milks, Pittsburgh Pirates 1926-27 (44 GP schedule)
.500 P/GP 22 points Duke Keats, Chicago Black Hawks 1927-28 (44 GP schedule)

(P/GP based on teams full schedule, not leading scorers actual GP)

Basically if you weed out the outlier seasons between 1926-27 and 1928-29, that leaves only four such occasions:

.463 P/GP 38 points Nick Bjugstad, Florida Panthers 2013-14 (82 GP schedule)
.464 P/GP 26 points Filip Hronek, Detroit Red Wings 2020-21 (56 GP schedule)
.476 P/GP 39 points Scott Pellerin, Minnesota Wild 2000-01 (82 GP schedule)
.488 P/GP 40 points Paul Ysebaert, Tampa Bay Lightning 1997-98 (82 GP schedule)
 
Last edited:

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,114
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
Gretzky (11 times)
Lemieux (6 times)
Esposito (2 times)
Kurri (2 times)
Dionne
Yzerman
Nicholls
Jagr
No matter how you slice it, Bernie Nicholls' 1.6-or-so seasons from October 1988 to January 1990, with the early Gretzky-Kings, were amazing.

This is how his stat-line breaks down per month in that period:

Oct. 1988
11 GP - 25 points
Nov. 1988
14 GP - 30 points
Dec. 1988
14 GP - 30 points
Jan. 1989
13 GP - 26 points
Feb. 1989
12 GP - 14 points
March 1989
14 GP - 20 points
April 1989
1 GP - 5 points
(PLAYOFFS = 11 GP - 16 points)
Oct. 1989
13 GP - 21 points
Nov. 1989
12 GP - 20 points
Dec. 1989
13 GP - 25 points
Jan. 1990
9 GP - 9 points

It's sort of crazy that he had back-to-back 30 point months in late 1988. (This included an 8-point game against Toronto.)
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,114
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
Current TSN correspondent Ray Ferraro, as a rookie in 1984-85, had the biggest night of his early career against the Gretzky-Oilers on March 29th, 1985.

The Oilers were at the very end of a 20-game mini-slump in which they went 7-9-6. They had a 4-2 lead in the Hartford game, and ended up losing 8-7. Ray Ferraro had 3 goals and 2 assists. (Not until his fifth season would he have another 5-point game.) By the way, Ferraro's teammate was current Oilers' coach Dave Tippett.

But the weirdest stats in this game were Paul Coffey's. Coffey picked up 2 goals and 4 assists (6 points) and went +6, despite his team giving up 8 goals.
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,114
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
2020-21 NHL #1 scorer, #2 scorer, and #1 defence scorer
= All Edmonton Oilers

The last time that happened was...

1984-85 Edmonton Oilers
 

Hockey Outsider

Registered User
Jan 16, 2005
9,056
13,987
McDavid has scored more than Detroit's top four scorers (who combined for 90 points). Has any player ever outscored the top four scorers on a single team before? I checked several possible candidates but I don't think anyone has actually done this before.

EDIT - in 1925, Babe Dye led the league with 46 points. Boston's top four scorers combined for 46 points. So, as far as I can tell, McDavid is the first player to outscore another team's top four scorers outright.

(Okay, technically Joe Malone did this in 1918 - largely a technicality as the Wanderers folded after six games).
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Le Champion

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,114
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
Playoff points-per-game leaders (min. 4 games) in...

1981
2.33 Gretzky
2.00 Stastny
1.94 Bossy

1982
2.40 Gretzky
2.00 Hawerchuk
1.80 Federko / Mullen

1983
2.38 Gretzky
1.94 Middleton
1.88 Pederson

1984
1.84 Gretzky
1.55 Reinhart
1.50 Yzerman

1985
2.61 Gretzky
2.06 Coffey
2.00 Linseman

1986
2.60 Maruk
1.90 Gretzky
1.40 Thomas

1987

1.62 Gretzky
1.50 Neely
1.40 Nicholls

1988
2.26 Gretzky
1.79 Messier
1.70 Gilmour

1989
2.00 Gretzky
1.73 Lemieux
1.71 Messier

One of these is not like the others....
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
19,114
15,573
Tokyo, Japan
McDavid has scored more than Detroit's top four scorers (who combined for 90 points). Has any player ever outscored the top four scorers on a single team before? I checked several possible candidates but I don't think anyone has actually done this before.
He also scored exactly the same points total as Anaheim's top 4 scorers.

(Speaking of Anaheim, this season Draisaitl, Pavelski, and Oshie each scored more power-play goals than the entire Ducks team managed.)

Gretzky came close to the top-4-on-another-team thing a few times. In 1982, his 212 points was very close to Colorado's 219. Then, in 1983, his 196 was likewise only 7 short of New Jersey's top-4. But the closest is 1984 -- Gretzky missed six games, yet scored only one less point than Jersey's top-4 (which combined for 206), so he would have easily done it.

Mario would have done it in 1993 (over Ottawa's top-4 and possibly San Jose's) and in 1996 (over Ottawa's top-4) if not for his missing 24 and 12 games, respectively.


Quite a statistic, that one...!
 

Big Phil

Registered User
Nov 2, 2003
31,703
4,144
What do Mario, Howe, Messier, Ovechkin, Coffey and Bourque have in common?

Neither scored a playoff overtime goal. Crazy huh?

I don't know if there is a less likely player in NHL history than the ones I mentioned, but if there is, let me know.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kahvi and alko
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->