Maurice Richard race this season is... boring

[alko]

It looks like we will see only 1 guy with more as 50 goals (Draisaitl).

Now there are only 7 others players with at least 40 goals.

Comparing to previous seasons it is clear decline in quality in Maurice Richard race.

In 23/24 season there were 4 players with 50+ and 1 with 69 goals. Overall 17 guys with 40+ goals.

In 22/23 there were 5 players with 50+ goals and 2 with 60+ goals. Overall 19 players with 40+ goals.

 

[Coffee]

It’s better when the winner is miles ahead of the rest for the rocket Imo

 

[ijuka]

Scoring has gone down again.

 

[Mr grumpy]

Scoring has gone down again.

Injuries to key people

 

[GlitchMarner]

It's been obvious for a long time that Draisaitl will win.

It hasn't been much of a race. Too bad Ovechkin got hurt.

 

[landy]

Power play opportunities are way down this year. Why? We need a ref to come answer.

 

[hangman005]

Dorofeyev will pot 25 goals in our last game vs Vancouver.

 

[gtrower]

It's been obvious for a long time that Draisaitl will win.

It hasn't been much of a race. Too bad Ovechkin got hurt.

Yeah they’re the only 2 guys on 50+ paces this year. Believe Ovi was actually leading the league when he got hurt?

Drai 52 in 71 (.732 gpg) for 60 goal pace
Ovi 43 in 63 (.682 gpg) for 56 goal pace

Would have been a tall order to match Draisatl’s 82 game pace. But you gotta think Ovi definitely tops 52 without the freak leg break.

Regardless, Draisaitl winning it comfortably while missing time himself is impressive. Hats off.

 

[belair]

Scoring has gone down again.

That's what happens when the refs stop calling obvious penalties. Powerplays down, scoring goes down.

 

[Hockey4Lyfe]

The Rocket Trophy race hasn’t been exciting since 2019.

 

[atlanticobserver]

Brayden Point could have made it more interesting but he had a stretch with 0 PPGs in 21 games and another with 0 goals in 10 games or so and missed about a half dozen with injury. He had it going for a while but fell off the pace.

Congrats to Leon though heck of a year despite the anticlimactic ending.

 

[Duder54]

It's been obvious for a long time that Draisaitl will win.

It hasn't been much of a race. Too bad Ovechkin got hurt.

Absolutely, a shame both of them got hurt. Draisaitl was on pace for 60 and Ovi not far behind.

 

[Mulletman]

Most embarrassing Rocket race of all time! Yeah winning the Rocket is nice and all. But it's not really a great accomplishment when this guy is 2nd in goals:

 

[tarheelhockey]

Injuries to key people

Yes, but scoring overall is on a steady 3-year decline.

 

[banks]

Most embarrassing Rocket race of all time! Yeah winning the Rocket is nice and all. But it's not really a great accomplishment when this guy is 2nd in goals:
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What do Nylander's fashion choices have to do with it?

Tupac did ballet, dude. Are his other accomplishments meaningless because he wore ballet tights at one time?

 

[Mr grumpy]

Yes, but scoring overall is on a steady 3-year decline.

last year it was up I thought. This year both Matthews and McDavid missed 10+ games

 

[Sypher04]

Most embarrassing Rocket race of all time! Yeah winning the Rocket is nice and all. But it's not really a great accomplishment when this guy is 2nd in goals:
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Nylander is a fantastic goal scorer so not really sure what exactly you’re going for here.

 

[Sypher04]

last year it was up I thought. This year both Matthews and McDavid missed 10+ games

Yeah and despite playing as much as he has, Matthews basically hasn’t been healthy wire to wire.

 

[NVious]

Matthews lost like 12% of his shot and has missed 15 games, pro rated he would be leading this year, so IMO they should make an exception and give it to him.

 

[tarheelhockey]

last year it was up I thought. This year both Matthews and McDavid missed 10+ games

2023 - 3.14
2024 - 3.08
2025 - 3.01

It’s still higher than post-lockout seasons in general, right around the same level as 2005-06 when so many players had career seasons. To your point, there would still be more 50-goal seasons happening except certain guys have been injured.

 

[thadd]

Power play opportunities are way down this year. Why? We need a ref to come answer.

Not calling penalties is the ref's new way of ensuring we get slow paced hockey as possible.
Heaven forbid we making hockey exciting.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

Yeah they’re the only 2 guys on 50+ paces this year. Believe Ovi was actually leading the league when he got hurt?

Drai 52 in 71 (.732 gpg) for 60 goal pace
Ovi 43 in 63 (.682 gpg) for 56 goal pace

Would have been a tall order to match Draisatl’s 82 game pace. But you gotta think Ovi definitely tops 52 without the freak leg break.

Regardless, Draisaitl winning it comfortably while missing time himself is impressive. Hats off.

Ovechkin has been taking healthy games off again to rest. His pace should be taken with a good amount of salt, it would definitely drop if he actually had to play 82 games straight without any breaks.

 

[Satoru Gojo]

Scoring has gone down again.

Which is interesting because save percentage is the lowest in years

 

[GMR]

Nothing will be as exciting as the Rocket race of 2003-2004.

Nash - 41G
Iginla - 41G
Kovalchuk - 41G

Beavis & Butthead scored more in those days than the best NHLers.

 

[rielledup]

Yes, but scoring overall is on a steady 3-year decline.

It's only a 4% difference from the high it was at a couple years ago to what it's at now. That would mean in theory a 50 goals scorer would now be a 48 goal scorer, not a big difference and it seems like there's probably more to it than that.