Why is scoring so much higher this year

[NyQuil]

How many 1G have come in ? I can't recall any

They are getting lit up by the guys on your list.

 

[NyQuil]

Those things contributed too, without much question. But skating has improved drastically. I don't care how much freedom you give them, no one in the 90s-2000 was skating like the top skaters today.

And the single best way to get the freedom to use your skating ability is by skating so well that no one can easily get close to you while you're maintaining puck possession. Make it risky to try to close the gap, because you can walk the defender even if he does everything perfectly. That's why guys are playing back a little more from the top guys, giving guys more space. Sure, the rules that make it easier to walk a guy without getting held/hooked/obstructed do absolutely contribute as well, but no one is reaching out to grab you or hold you if you can't get around them in the first place.

There's a certain degree of causality.

You have an entire generation of players being brought up under the new rules. Part of it is due to the emphasis on skating development and training and part of it is prioritizing skating over potentially other qualities at all levels of amateur player selection up to and including the NHL draft.

All of a sudden, teams aren't drafting with such an emphasis on size anymore. With the two line pass still in place, the smaller offensive zone, you didn't need to be the best skater to get within an arm or stick's reach of another player, I don't care how good they were.

Puck moving defencemen and smaller finesse players are coveted because they can't simply be manhandled into irrelevance. Teams can't afford to put enforcers on the ice anymore if they can't keep up with the play, and if it means you are short a productive skating forward.

 

[syz]

Rule changes in junior hockey have resulted in more players entering the league without a history of injury and/or concussion. Rule changes in the NHL have allowed for those players to be less likely to get seriously injured and/or suffer concussions. So guys are entering the physical peaks of their lives without having the ceiling on those peaks lowered as much by past injuries.

And then they nerfed goalie equipment.

 

[NyQuil]

And then they nerfed goalie equipment.

That's the other side of the coin, and it's something that happened continuously and consistently over a period of time as opposed to just one time.

 

[DitchMarner]

I agree that there's more talent in the League than there was a decade ago and obviously the reduction in goalie equipment has contributed to the rise in scoring.

However, I think we are also simply at a point in time where offense is evolving faster than defense and goaltending. This may have been the case back in the 80s and early 90s as well. In the mid 90s systems like the trap became prevalent and it was common for players to use hooking, holding, obstruction etc to impede players.

I suspect that soon another Jacques Lemaire will come along and find a way to effectively neutralize offense and have success in the playoffs. Then teams will copy him, especially if the League continues to expand.

 

[Captain Mountain]

There's no way just expanding the league to two teams (aka adding ~50 players) makes that big of a difference

It may if we're looking at star players.

I haven't corroborated these numbers, but I'm not sure goal scoring is actually up.

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It looks like the jump occurred in 2021-2022 (from around 3 goals a game to 3.1ish goals a game). 2021-2022 was the Kraken's first season.

The previous jump would have been in 2017-2018, where it 2.7ish goal per game to around 3ish goals per game). That doesn't line up with Vegas (first season being 2018-2019) EDIT: That lines up with Vegas' first season.

Now correlation doesn't equal causation, and I think the bigger impact is strategic trends (like playing elite players more frequently), development changes and goalie equipment changes, but expansion and dilution of talent probably does play a role, especially for elite players. Fewer teams have the depth to contain the top players.

 

[Offtheboard412]

I agree that there's more talent in the League than there was a decade ago and obviously the reduction in goalie equipment has contributed to the rise in scoring.

However, I think we are also simply at a point in time where offense is evolving faster than defense and goaltending. This may have been the case back in the 80s and early 90s as well. In the mid 90s systems like the trap became prevalent and it was common for players to use hooking, holding, obstruction etc to impede players.

I suspect that soon another Jacques Lemaire will come along and find a way to effectively neutralize offense and have success in the playoffs. Then teams will copy him, especially if the League continues to expand.

I think the equipment and technique that goaltenders used improved so rapidly during the 90's that it effectively jumped 2 generations ahead of the offensive tactics and skills. It's taken this long for the skaters to begin to catch up. You add in the reduction in obstruction, headshots, illegal stickwork plus the restrictions placed on goaltenders pads size and you get what is happening now.

 

[NyQuil]

It may if we're looking at star players.

I haven't corroborated these numbers, but I'm not sure goal scoring is actually up.

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It looks like the jump occurred in 2021-2022 (from around 3 goals a game to 3.1ish goals a game). 2021-2022 was the Kraken's first season.

The previous jump would have been in 2017-2018, where it 2.7ish goal per game to around 3ish goals per game). That doesn't line up with Vegas (first season being 2018-2019).

Now correlation doesn't equal causation, and I think the bigger impact is strategic trends (like playing elite players more frequently), development changes and goalie equipment changes, but expansion and dilution of talent probably does play a role, especially for elite players. Fewer teams have the depth to contain the top players.

Power play conversion where the lion’s share of the offensive talent shares the ice is also as high as it’s been since the late 80s.

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[NVious]

I'm tired of the high scoring era, it's boring now, we want the trap again. 70 goals is the new 40, it's not even cool anymore.

#LaKings4Cup #Danault4Hart

 

[shaner8989]

Abysmal goaltending

Supposed top goalies are actually shit.

Sorokin lost his job
Jarry lost his job
Vasi has been awful
Shesterkin has been meh
Ottenger has been awful
Georgiev is a sieve

All the young goalies suck
Ersson
Dostal
Wolf
Fedatov

Have bums like Lindgren, Nedelkovic and Lyon having starting roles only hurts

Anthony Stolarz has the highest save% in the NHL. That’s a problem

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

There's a certain degree of causality.

You have an entire generation of players being brought up under the new rules. Part of it is due to the emphasis on skating development and training and part of it is prioritizing skating over potentially other qualities at all levels of amateur player selection up to and including the NHL draft.

All of a sudden, teams aren't drafting with such an emphasis on size anymore. With the two line pass still in place, the smaller offensive zone, you didn't need to be the best skater to get within an arm or stick's reach of another player, I don't care how good they were.

Puck moving defencemen and smaller finesse players are coveted because they can't simply be manhandled into irrelevance. Teams can't afford to put enforcers on the ice anymore if they can't keep up with the play, and if it means you are short a productive skating forward.

Yes, the new rules and improved skate technology, and different training methods, and all of that absolutely contributed to skating being much better today.

But, I'd say that teams didn't stop drafting for size "all of a sudden", so much as they started having better options in the draft. For a couple of decades, starting in about 1992, there usually weren't many high end scorers in the draft in any given year, so you almost had to have a top 2 or 3 pick in the right draft to even get a chance at one. Once you got past those first few guys, there wasn't much to differentiate the next tier of guys from each other except size. There were a few years that were pretty good, but not too many of them in quick succession.

Then, starting in the early 2010s, the draft started getting better, both with more higher end talent at the top of the draft (MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews, Hughes, Bedard, etc) and with a greater number of highly talented players in each draft. 2015 alone gave us McDavid, Marner, Rantanen, Aho, Eichel, Connor, Barzal, Konecny, Boeser, Meier, Kaprizov, Hintz, etc. And there's been a number of other really good drafts in the last 5-8 years.

 

[Cup or Bust]

I think it has been a natural evolution since 2005 with the rules, the types of players teams draft and play, and team strategies. It has been a combination of things and it didn't just happen over night. The style of play now is so much different compared to 2004. Speed and skill is more valued then grit, size, and toughness. Teams play a faster, more offensive focused game rather then a more defensive grinding one. It took some time for the pre-2005 generation of more physical, less skilled players to work themselves out of the league and be replaced by faster and more skilled players. Right now you have more skill and speed and probably less defensive ability as well due to rule changes and you simply do not have to be as good defensively to play in today's NHL as you did 20 years ago for both forwards and defenseman because the game is now more offense focused due to the rules and player skillset.

 

[MadLuke]

The salary cap crunch is a big part of the cause. .. but on the same rosters you have players filling out the 3rd and 4th lines who probably should be in the AHL. Then you have teams like the Sharks and Hawks who aside from Bedard have no top end talent just a bunch of players that would be 3rd or 4th line or in the AHL on most teams. Same with the defense and goaltending....

That only works if quite talented player on bad contract (they would be top 6 but at that price tag better bury them) or stay in Europe because the quality of life make it worth it to take a not so big pay cut, as team cannot offer them what they want them too contract wise because of the cap.

With 32 teams is that happen much, there franchise that work to keep their cap above the floor out there.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Expansion dilutes league-wide talent.

In the case of Vegas and Seattle, it exploited weaknesses in defensive depth and goaltending.

 

[JKG33]

I don't believe players today are inherently more talented than the ones of the past. But the ones today have the best fitness training and nutrition money can buy. Skill coaches for every little thing. Equipment that's lighter and more efficient than ever before. And the game has a rulebook that allows offense to thrive.

Refinement culture.

 

[cupface52]

It may if we're looking at star players.

I haven't corroborated these numbers, but I'm not sure goal scoring is actually up.

NHL League Averages | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest NHL League Averages including shots, saves, goal averages and more on Hockey-Reference.com

www.hockey-reference.com

It looks like the jump occurred in 2021-2022 (from around 3 goals a game to 3.1ish goals a game). 2021-2022 was the Kraken's first season.

The previous jump would have been in 2017-2018, where it 2.7ish goal per game to around 3ish goals per game). That doesn't line up with Vegas (first season being 2018-2019).

Now correlation doesn't equal causation, and I think the bigger impact is strategic trends (like playing elite players more frequently), development changes and goalie equipment changes, but expansion and dilution of talent probably does play a role, especially for elite players. Fewer teams have the depth to contain the top players.

Vegas first season was 2017-2018. The same year there was a big jump in scoring. Also goalie equipment decreased that year as well.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Vegas first season was 2017-2018. The same year there was a big jump in scoring. Also goalie equipment decreased that year as well.

Shit, you're right, I'll edit my post.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

There's no one reason for increased scoring in the last 3 years. It's a mix of multiple things, and that's what the League wanted.

Just some rule changes from the last 5-6 years or so that I think have all attributed to higher scoring.

- They tightened up on the stick infraction calls. Players would use their stick very aggressively to defend, now a tap on the hands is all it takes. The number of penalties has gone up a bit, but the bigger change is psychological. Guys don't want to take a penalty and it makes it a bit easier on the skill players. It's clearly had an affect in my opinion.

- If you hit the iron and puck goes out of play, face-off stays in the o-zone instead of coming out. Subtle rule change, but it makes sense and can lead to more offense whether it's a goal, gaining momentum or drawing a penalty.

- Smaller goalie equipment. Pretty self-explanatory.

- 3on3 overtime. More overtime goals, and they all count the same.

But also, we have a lot of great players in their primes right now. Some of the individual seasons players are having are very impressive.

On top of that, I think there's more skill outside of the playoff teams than what you used to see. You have teams like Buffalo, Ottawa, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Minnesota etc. out of the playoffs right now. They all have skilled players and multiple lines that can hurt you. In the past a Bettman .500 team lacked talent more often than not. Kind of like the current Montreal.

 

[Darcy Tucker]

 

[VainGretzky]

The Talent in the League is superior compared to the late 90' till about 2014 also players are shooting a lot higher than a decade ago and butterfly goalies are getting exposed , would not be surprised to see hybrid goalies like Brodeur start emerging in the next decade

 

[BB79]

Because goalies today in general suck

 

[BlueAzN]

I'm tired of the high scoring era, it's boring now, we want the trap again. 70 goals is the new 40, it's not even cool anymore.

#LaKings4Cup #Danault4Hart

Please god no more trap.

 

[Malaka]

Diluting of talent

I disagree and hate this take.

Technical skill training has become standardized. It’s not dilution but concentration of talent. Combined with a catch up phase of players who have high end talent in other areas but can only skate at mediocre level(or have been aging/injured) being then taken advantage of by better skaters who are more complete players. The league is faster and younger than ever.

 

[Mr Positive]

I like the idea that it is diluted talent. All it takes for an era to be considered high scoring is a modest increase. Diluting talent means there are two teams worth of players at the bottom of the depth charts to be downgraded. That gives more weak points to exploit. It also means the better players likely play more to cover the weakness. This could be why players who have won major scoring awards haven't been winning cups, as maybe these were the overplayed and more fatigued/injured elites.

I'd wonder if there is statistical evidence during other major expansions. The obvious one would be the WHA expansion that exploded league scoring. But the better info would be what the 90s and 2000s expansions did

 

[BraveCanadian]

My guesses are:

• Expansion / dilution / talent pool shrinking to include basically only rich people
• Goalie equipment being shrunk
• Officiating standard creating a much more free flowing game with small skilled players and less physicality which lets players go to the formerly dirty areas without a care
• Better crop of top end players than ~10 or 15 years ago