Player who scored a goal against every team in any given season

[BenchBrawl]

Obviously talking post-expansion, since scoring against 5 teams in O6 was probably done by dozens of players.

By looking at some Mario Lemieux splits on h-r, I noticed that he scored a goal against every single team in 92-93.This is despite only playing 1 game against 7 of them, and only 2 games against 6 others.

He also did it in 88-89, but played more games against all teams.He barely missed in 87-88 and 95-96.

Brett Hull did it spectacularly in 90-91.He almost scored 2 goals (!) against every team, but only scored one against the Flyers. He also did it in 89-90 and barely missed in 91-92.

I checked Selanne's and Ovechkin's big year and they didn't do it.Unfortunately the data is not available pre-1987-1988.I wonder if anybody else did it before Mario and if anyone knew.

Probably Gretzky did it, maybe Phil Esposito.Maybe Kurri did it.Lafleur? Bossy?

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[The Panther]

By looking at some Mario Lemieux splits on h-r, I noticed that he scored a goal against every single team in 92-93.This is despite only playing 1 game against 7 of them, and only 2 games against 6 others.

He actually missed one team -- Calgary. That's because he didn't play against them all season! The Pens played Calgary twice in Jan.1993, but Mario was out for both. Still, he scored at least a goal against every team he played against (22 of them!) while dressing for only sixty games.

He also did it in 88-89, but played more games against all teams.

Yep, he did it for certain in 1988-89! (15 points in three games against Chicago... ouch!)

Brett Hull did it spectacularly in 90-91.He almost scored 2 goals (!) against every team, but only scored one against the Flyers. He also did it in 89-90 and barely missed in 91-92.

Brett's 1990-91 is so impressive in the sense that he didn't score goals in bunches, but usually one or two when he did score. Great consistency. Hull scored at least one goal in 56 different games that season, which I'm sure is the most such games scored in by any player, ever.

Probably Gretzky did it...

That one I can pretty easily check! So, let's see...

Wayne did it in 1981-82 (the 50-in-39, 92-goal season). That's the first season where divisional rivals played each other 8 times per year; however, in this case that didn't really matter as Wayne scored a goal in his first game against L.A., Winnipeg, and Calgary, and in his second game vs. Colorado and Vancouver. The last team (chronologically) he scored against was Montreal (his third game vs. them), on February 3rd, 1982. That is, by Feb.3rd (game 56), he had scored against every team in the League.

Somewhat surprisingly, Wayne did it again in 1982-83 ("only" 71 goals that year). He achieved it when he scored against Detroit on March 19th, 1983, game 74 in the schedule.

He didn't do it in 1983-84 (despite his highest goals-per-game). Buffalo (three times) and Boston (twice) shut him down.

Wayne did it yet again in 1984-85. This time, Chicago was the final team he scored against, on March 31st 1985, game 77.

He failed in 1986-87 by not scoring against only one team -- New Jersey! Weirdly, the Oilers played Jersey all three times in less than one month, late in the season, and Wayne failed to score in those three games.

So, Gretzky appears to have done this three times -- 1981-82, 1982-83, and 1984-85. Narrow miss in 1986-87.


It would be really impressive if anyone had done this in 1979-80 or 1980-81, because there were 20 opponents to score against, yet teams played one another a maximum of four times. (Though, as mentioned, Gretzky did this in 1981-82 within his first three games vs. every team, and probably Mario and Brett did, too, I'm not sure.) Maybe Bossy in 1980-81? I don't know.

 

[tony d]

Speaks to how good Lemieux is. I've often said had he not gotten injured in 1992-1993 he would have got 200 points that year.

 

[snuffelapagus]

 

[BenchBrawl]

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This is incredible, didn't think Lafleur scored enough goals to have done it.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Speaks to how good Lemieux is. I've often said had he not gotten injured in 1992-1993 he would have got 200 points that year.

That’s 100%

 

[JianYang]

Speaks to how good Lemieux is. I've often said had he not gotten injured in 1992-1993 he would have got 200 points that year.

It's not a stretch at all. He got 160 points in 60 games. That's a sample size significant enough to meaningfully extrapolate over a full season.

That equates to 219 points in 82 games. It's probably the most statistically dominant season I have ever witnessed.... And I haven't even talked about his health problems that year.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

I believe Mike Bossy scored against all teams in 1978/79 and 1981/82. Another one who I think did it at least twice was Jari Kurri (1984/85 and 85/86).

In 1988/89 Steve Yzerman managed to score at least once on the road against all 20 teams, that's a pretty impressive thing to do.

Phil Esposito had a nice 10 year run between 1964/65 and 1974/75.
He was only held scoreless by a team on two occasions (1967/68 Oakland and 1974/75 Pittsburgh)

 

[The Panther]

I believe Mike Bossy scored against all teams in 1978/79 and 1981/82. Another one who I think did it at least twice was Jari Kurri (1984/85 and 85/86).

In 1988/89 Steve Yzerman managed to score at least once on the road against all 20 teams, that's a pretty impressive thing to do.

Phil Esposito had a nice 10 year run between 1964/65 and 1974/75.
He was only held scoreless by a team on two occasions (1967/68 Oakland and 1974/75 Pittsburgh)

Nice. Yes, Kurri is a definite possibility those two seasons. I guess you are right about Bossy -- I was thinking 1980-81 was more likely as he scored a career-high, but you probably know better than I do.

I had no idea about Yzerman.

Espo is not surprising at all, though. If you score 76 goals and there are 13 other teams, playing against them all equally, it's bound to happen.

 

[DJ Man]

Surely, there were some players in the six-team era who scored against six opponents due to having been traded during the season.

 

[kruezer]

Checked Mogilny in his 76 goal year, and Bure’s two 60 goal campaigns in Vancouver as well as Stamkos’ 60 goal year and none of them did it.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

Another player who did it at least twice was Marcel Dionne (1978/79 and 1982/83)
He also missed out narrowly in 1979/80 (Only held scoreless against NY Rangers).

So the players from 1975 and onwards that can be added to the list are:

1975/76 – Reggie Leach
1976/77 – Steve Shutt
1976/77 – Guy Lafleur
1977/78 – Guy Lafleur
1978/79 – Marcel Dionne
1978/79 – Mike Bossy
1979/80 - Charlie Simmer
1981/82 – Mike Bossy
1981/82 – Dennis Maruk
1981/82 – Wayne Gretzky
1982/83 – Wayne Gretzky
1982/83 – Marcel Dionne
1984/85 – Wayne Gretzky
1984/85 – Jari Kurri
1985/86 – Jari Kurri
1988/89 – Mario Lemieux
1988/89 – Steve Yzerman
1989/90 – Brett Hull
1990/91 – Brett Hull
1992/93 – Mario Lemieux (Didn’t play against Calgary though)