What explains the number of offensive milestones this season?

[Montreal Shadow]

- McDavid is the first player since Lemieux to score 150 pts in 1995-96

- 2 120-pts scorers. The last time this happened was in 2005-06 with Joe Thornton scoring 125 and Jagr scoring 123

- 3 110-pts scorers, potentially 5, Pastrnak needs 1 in 2 games. Matthew Tkachuk, 2 in 2 games, and MacKinnon 3 in 3 games. You'd have to go back to 1995-96 with 6 110-pts scorers to match or exceed this total if they all hit it which has a mild chance of happening

- 2 60-goal scorers, off-chance of 3 with Rantanen, when there have been 3 total in the last 25+ seasons before that one. Once again, you have to go back to 1995-96 to find 2 60-goal scorers in Lemieux with 69 and Jagr with 62

- Currently 4, but potentially 5, and an off-chance of 6 50-goal scorers. Brayden Point needs 1 in the next 2 but Tage Thompson needs 4 goals in the last 4 games which is unlikely to happen

- Possibly 100 pts for Karlsson, which hasn’t happened for a defenseman in over 30 years since Leetch in 1991-92

- Currently 11, but potentially 12 100-pts scorers, perhaps even 13. Elias Pettersson needs 1 pt in his last 3 games, Marner 2 in his last 3, Karlsson 2 in his last 2, and Jack Hughes 4 in his last 2. For comparison’s sake, the highest amount of different 100-pts scorers in a single season was 1992-93 with 21. Second place is 1984-85 with 16. The number of 100-pts scorers this season might rival the 80s by the end. 2005-06 which is infamous for the number of PPs handed out only produced 7 100-pts scorers. 1995-96 is the closest with 12 different players scoring 100 pts

- Jason Robertson broke the scoring record for the Dallas Stars with 106 pts and counting

- Jack Hughes broke the scoring record for the New Jersey Devils with 97 pts but has 1 game left

According to hockey-reference, this is the highest-scoring season in 29 years since 1993-94 with 3.18 goals per game, slightly above 1995-96 with 3.14.

I can't quite explain why scoring is so high though. In times past, you could attribute this to the high number of PPs such as in 2005-06 or 1995-96, or the free-for-all style of the 80s but I don't see what has changed so much this year compared to the others.

With that said, I find it interesting how well that season lines up with 1995-96. Same number of 60-goal scorers. Perhaps a similar number of 100-pts scorers by the end, and even a comparable number of 110-pts scorers. McDavid's numbers should end up within Lemieux's ballpark (albeit Lemieux missed 12 games) while Draisaitl has surpassed Sakic and his 3rd place with 120 pts but will not quite match Jagr's 149.

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[The Gr8 Dane]

Maybe goalie equipment has something to do with it? Not sure why league scoring is so high these days is it really because of the lack of physicality/high pen calls and opening up the ice?

 

[WeThreeKings]

There's like 5 good goalies in the entire NHL.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Bigger difference between the teams that are going for it and the teams that are tanking.

Anaheim and Columbus are putting up the worst defensive seasons in the cap era, and San Jose is right up there too, with Montreal not far behind.

If we look at the 20 worst defensive seasons of the cap era, almost half (9) are happening this season.

 

[Ajaton Azer]

I think that players today are more skillful, stronger and faster than before. Therefore it's also easier for them to make nice plays and score more points.

 

[Monsieur Verdoux]

- Rule changes, for instance goalie equiptments and cross-checking penalties, so it's more difficult to defend around the crease. Less hooking than 5–10 years earlier.

- More young players in the league. They are faster and more skilled than earlier but at the same time they don't defend as well as players did few years ago.

- The players are faster and more skilled than earlier.

- The coaches allow their young players to play more offensive-minded hockey at the expense of the defensive structure.

- Tanking. More weak teams in the league.

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

2 expansion teams diluting talent is the real answer.

 

[tabness]

Greater enforcement on obstruction as well as slashing and crosschecking are big reasons for the recent uptick (not just this season) as is the reduced goalie equipment size.

Sticks are real good now. Seems like everyone can pick corners consistently at 80 to 90 miles an hour if they got time and space, and even if they don't, nobody's gonna hit them anyway lol

Lots more empty net goals definitely helps as goalies are pulled earlier and with larger deficits. 3 on 3 OT as well.

Definitely feels like more offensive talent in the league. McDavid era from the late 2010s just seems that it has better players than the Crosby era from the early 2010s, but it can't be the only thing because many older players are seeing better numbers themselves. I believe this is partly due to these new players coming in having only the new NHL context. They have grown up playing a speed and skill game from the get go and so they feel right at home at what the rules provide.

Penguins back to back cups have ushered in copycats in terms of high tempo offensive coaching strategies.

Defensemen are activating a lot more. There seems to have been a lull in offensive defensemen in the Lidstrom era from what came before and what is here now.

Expansion? I guess a little maybe?

Basically, this higher scoring would generally be welcome if not for the fact that it was effectively realized through making hockey soft as hell.

sums up the elite of this era... sigh

 

[Montreal Shadow]

View attachment 684999

sums up the elite of this era... sigh

Lol, in 20 years from now, another poster will say the same thing as you do and lament the state of the game.

I know what you're going for but this is just the way life goes.

 

[Muuri]

Any stats how much 3vs3 OT rises scoring compared to 4vs4? Cant be the only reason for sure, but it would be intresting to compare.

 

[hoglund]

I think goaltending is not what it used to be, many goaltending greats have recently retired Brodeur, Longo etc.

 

[CogNoman]

Maybe expansion. Last year also had a bunch of anomalies. If you look at the all-time list of "most points by a team in a season", 5 of the top 50 are from last season:

Florida (2021-22) - 8th most points all-time in a season
Colorado - 17th
Carolina - 29th
Toronto - 35th
Mimnesota - 47th

So maybe now that there are more players in the league, the skill difference between the best player and worst player is bigger? So top players/teams can feast on bottom players/teams.

I don't know if the stats back that up though - maybe top players this year are still scoring points against top players and top teams, and not just racking up points against bottom-feeders.

 

[Peasy]

Expansion teams water down the overall quality of players on rosters. Anytime a team is added, youre adding in 25 more guys that wouldnt have normally been in the league.

Seems like theres just a massive goaltending drought overall. Canada has not produced an elite goalie since Price.

Teams are much more effective on the PP nowadays (4 forwards, typically 1st unit staying out most of the time).

 

[I am toxic]

Record number of teams performing generational tanking for Bedard.

 

[SniperOnTheWing]

I don’t really care why. I just want it to continue.

60 goal seasons are great. 100 point seasons are great. 150 point seasons are incredible. Milestones get people hyped. Goals get crowds out of their seats. It’s all awesome.

Screw goalies and screw defence. Loving this NHL.

 

[Matt Ress]

Rule changes from a couple years ago that allow smaller skilled guys to be successful are coming to fruition. That opens up the pool of skill despite adding expansion teams. I loved the physicality of old time hockey but hopefully we're entering an era of speed and skill that promotes the league just as well.

 

[Mrb1p]

Goals being scored at a higher rate

 

[tarheelhockey]

Save% has been declining steadily for several years now. It has dropped from .915 to .904 since 2016. That's a good starting point for the conversation. It's not just about offenses generating more opportunities, it's about goalies stopping a significantly smaller proportion of the pucks that come at them.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Scoring is up a bit overall but the biggest thing is the way the game is being called right now.

A lot of east west play is allowed by teams and a lot of bodies are allowed to camp out in front of the net with little recourse because there is very little physicality in the league right now.

This leads to very high PP efficiencies which is why some top line players are putting up bigger numbers than the average scoring increase would suggest.

 

[Neil Racki]

A lot of what people have already said

Plus empty netters seem abundant w teams aggressively pulling their goalies down 2 or even 3 goals.

A 3-2 game with 2 mins to go can turn into a 5-2 game pretty quick and often.

(I looked briefly to find any site with year to year EN totals but didnt see any)

 

[TJHKY]

Ovi scored 800 goals
Ovi scored 802 passing Mr. Hockey as #2 all time
Ovi scored 822 still counting

 

[Rafafouille]

Don't care why, just want it to last. I'm loving it. As a Habs though this season describes our offense of the past 2 decades. Offensive records being broken left and right and we'll have one 60 point scorer and maybe a 40 point guy, typical

 

[OldCraig71]

No lead seems to be safe, plenty of comebacks in games when the losing team is down by 3-4 goals, is that just bad goaltending or poor defensive play as well?

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

1-Crackdown on obstruction (particularly how tight they call hooks to the hand area)
2-Goalie equipment size shrinking
3-Expansion watering down the talent league-wide
4-Various rule changes to affect more offensive zone time for teams.

Take your pick. It's a combination of the above.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

NHL has been tweaking things to increase scoring for years. Maybe they've finally got it right?