Colorado stars close to shattering the empty net points record

[Letsdothis]

Kucherov broke the all-time record with 14 last year. We're not even half way though the year and Rantanen is already at 12, MacKinnon at 11.

Is this just shameless stat padding, a marketing gimmick to increase their point totals to serve the NHL star cult or are they just really good at securing games for their team and nobody should complain? What's going on?

Click to read more...

 

[Romang67]

... a marketing gimmick to increase their point totals to serve the NHL star cult...

Tell me more about this cult. I need a new thing in 2025.

In exchange, I'll tell you that I think it's largely happenstance, but empty net points are inherently a good thing. If you can be out against the empty net and consistently put the game away, neat.

 

[Kerberos]

They're EN merchants. Go absolutely insane when they see an empty net.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Well, you need to be good to be winning for the other team to pull their goalie.

You need to be trust worthy to be out there at the end.

You need to be skilled and/or a hard worker to get the empty nets at times.

All it does is help Rantanen get a lot if he chooses to leave.

Well, he'll still get a lot, but he'll get more if he goes to free agency.

 

[dirtydanglez]

very few players can outwork and outskate mackinnon. makes complete sense to get him out there every chance with the empty net.

 

[BKarchitect]

If you get to the end of the season and use it as one of many metrics to evaluate award winners - I think it’s totally fair.

As an actual thing to be pissy about - seems to be credit for playing and driving a winning team. If you don’t want them to score on an empty net, prevent them from scoring when they take the lead earlier in the game.

Nobody in ten years is going to care how many EN points MacK, Kucherov, McDavid or others scored. They simply aren’t. To think otherwise means you are thinking too highly of your contemporary opinion.

 

[Tralfamadore]

Bums

 

[DearDiary]

Probably the worst record other than shorthanded goals, where players are shooting pucks when they're supposed to be blocking shots.

 

[benfranklin]

This is an interesting argument. I was one who ripped Kucherov for all his EN points in 23-24 and believe it cost him the Hart, but there has to be something to your team being up late in games and your team depending on you to close out the games.

Is an EN easier than one with literally anything in it? Yes, but the Avs as a team should get some credit for being up late in games compared to going to OT and potentially losing.

 

[TheForsbergShow]

This stat is only going to be further increased every year as long as coaches continue to pull their goalies earlier and down 2/3 goals.

 

[benfranklin]

Also im sure someone can pull; up stats of coaches pulling the goalie with more time remaining and leaving them pulled for 1-2-3 empty netters thinking there is still a slim chance to come back. So obviously EN points should be up all around the league.

 

[Calderon]

I think I'm pretty neutral about the subject but it's absolutely wild that someone is already on pace to double a record that was set just last season and which has been available for decades to anyone to break (provided they have the late-game small lead and get the ice time, obviously).

 

[Three On Zero]

The opposition should probably try to score more if they don’t want them to get goals with an empty net?

 

[wayninja]

Op nailed it. This is a carefully calculated gambit by the league.

 

[Tralfamadore]

Great for the team doesn thelp the players case for some hardware.

 

[tmg]

They also allowed a ton of empty net goals in early season.

I mean, Georgiev was technically there, but…

 

[BallardEra]

Ovie just texted Rantanen and MacKinnon with a thumbs up and smug face emoji.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Empty net goals are important, unless they're all coming with under 5 seconds in the game or something.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Ridiculous that they're trying to score goals and seal wins.

 

[DitchMarner]

It seems there are simply a lot more empty-netters and empty-net situations than there used to be and star players are capitalizing on this.

In the past, a team trailing by one would pull its goalie with 60 to 90 seconds left. Sometimes a team trailing by two goals would take its goalie out.

Now teams always seem to pull their goalie when down by two and often when down by three (which simply didn't happen in the regular season years ago). And they do it with a lot of time remaining. Of course skilled offensive players are often going to capitalize and score.

Don't know why people bitch about this so much. If your team's star can't score very many empty-net points, maybe he can't be trusted to be on the ice when protecting a lead late. If you don't want to have empty-netters scored against you, don't pull the friggen goalie with two and a half minutes to go when you're down by two. Better yet, don't be trailing late in games in the first place.

 

[Avs2022]

They're EN merchants. Go absolutely insane when they see an empty net.

Mackinnon even starts skating faster when he smells an empty net. Then yells at Makar to pass to him and no one else. True story.

 

[benfranklin]

The real investigation should be how many hat tricks are fake empty net hat tricks. All points back to MacKinnon wanting to rob Avalanche fans of their precious headwear.

 

[OilersFanatics505]

Tell me more about this cult. I need a new thing in 2025.

In exchange, I'll tell you that I think it's largely happenstance, but empty net points are inherently a good thing. If you can be out against the empty net and consistently put the game away, neat.

My last cult fizzled out after our leader drank the punch first and everyone went home. I could use a new one.

 

[Romang67]

This is an interesting argument. I was one who ripped Kucherov for all his EN points in 23-24 and believe it cost him the Hart, but there has to be something to your team being up late in games and your team depending on you to close out the games.

Is an EN easier than one with literally anything in it? Yes, but the Avs as a team should get some credit for being up late in games compared to going to OT and potentially losing.

Connor-Scheifele-Wheeler were eating up EN points for a while for the Jets. Lots of angry people (mostly Laine fans) on that one, but we put away A LOT of games that way.

Mackinnon even starts skating faster when he smells an empty net. Then yells at Makar to pass to him and no one else. True story.

I saw him make a chickpea smoothie on the bench with about 5 minutes left in the 3rd. Didn't reflect on it when it happened, but now that you mention this...

 

[Muffin]

Or think of it as them being good enough defensively to be out there closing out a close game. With MacKinnon's speed one miss pass with the empty net and it's game over.