overpass
Registered User
- Jun 7, 2007
- 5,271
- 2,808
I've always been interested in timely goal scoring as a topic. Do some players tend to score more in close games and others in blowouts? Some players have had reputations in this area but as far as I know the numbers have never been presented. Well, here they are, for goal scoring going back to 1952-53.
I ran the numbers for the top 50 goal scorers from 1952-53 to 2015-16. Each goal was assigned to one of 6 categories.
Blowout Loss Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was losing by 4 or more goals.
Rally Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was losing by 2 or 3 goals.
Tying Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was down by 1, tying the score of the game.
Go-Ahead Goal: The goal was scored while the game was tied, putting the player's team ahead by 1.
Insurance Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was leading by 1 or 2 goals.
Blowout Win Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was leading by 3 or more, putting them in the lead by at least 4 goals.
Era differences clearly have an effect on these numbers. A lead of any given size was less valuable in a higher scoring era than it was in a lower scoring era. I haven't changed the definitions by era, but I have calculated team and era adjusted numbers. The adjusted numbers are relative to the player's own goal scoring results - so a negative number doesn't mean they were a bad goal scorer, but it does mean they were less likely to score in these situations than in other situations.
The raw numbers have value in themselves, but it's also interesting to identify which players got their numbers simply because of their team and era situations, and which players appear to have had other factors in play.
The results will follow in subsequent posts.
The information used herein was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by The Hockey Summary Project. For more information about the Hockey Summary Project please visit:
http://hsp.flyershistory.com or http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/hockey_summary_project/
I ran the numbers for the top 50 goal scorers from 1952-53 to 2015-16. Each goal was assigned to one of 6 categories.
Blowout Loss Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was losing by 4 or more goals.
Rally Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was losing by 2 or 3 goals.
Tying Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was down by 1, tying the score of the game.
Go-Ahead Goal: The goal was scored while the game was tied, putting the player's team ahead by 1.
Insurance Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was leading by 1 or 2 goals.
Blowout Win Goal: The goal was scored while the player's team was leading by 3 or more, putting them in the lead by at least 4 goals.
Era differences clearly have an effect on these numbers. A lead of any given size was less valuable in a higher scoring era than it was in a lower scoring era. I haven't changed the definitions by era, but I have calculated team and era adjusted numbers. The adjusted numbers are relative to the player's own goal scoring results - so a negative number doesn't mean they were a bad goal scorer, but it does mean they were less likely to score in these situations than in other situations.
The raw numbers have value in themselves, but it's also interesting to identify which players got their numbers simply because of their team and era situations, and which players appear to have had other factors in play.
The results will follow in subsequent posts.
The information used herein was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by The Hockey Summary Project. For more information about the Hockey Summary Project please visit:
http://hsp.flyershistory.com or http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/hockey_summary_project/