Obscure hockey facts/stats (Part 2)

[Mohar Ikram]

This might be already known but the closest sweep in SCF was in 1968 where Habs outmuscled the Blues 4-0.

This is the score of such games:

Game 1: 3-2 Habs (OT)
Game 2: 1-0 Habs
Game 3: 4-3 Habs (OT)
Game 4: 3-2 Habs

- All games won by only 1 single goal.
- Lemaire scored the OT goal in game 1, Savard scored the short-handed goal to win game 2, Rousseau scored the OT goal in game 3, Henri Richard tied the game in game 4 before JC Tremblay scored the SCF GWG.
- The goalie they faced? old Glenn Hall.... nothing matters, just 0.916% and 2.43 GAA. A sweep but an honourable sweep.

Another one. With the inclusion of Pavel Datsyuk into HHOF in 2024, 2002 Detroit Red Wings became the first ever team to ice 4 HOF centres in their depth chart (Since the four lines FW became common).

1C : Fedorov (HHOF 2015)
2C : Yzerman (HHOF 2009)
3C : Larionov (HHOF 2008, TGC)
4C : Datsyuk (HHOF 2024, TGC)

3 Russians, 1 Canadian.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

This might be already known but the closest sweep in SCF was in 1968 where Habs outmuscled the Blues 4-0.

This is the score of such games:

Game 1: 3-2 Habs (OT)
Game 2: 1-0 Habs
Game 3: 4-3 Habs (OT)
Game 4: 3-2 Habs

- All games won by only 1 single goal.
- Lemaire scored the OT goal in game 1, Savard scored the short-handed goal to win game 2, Rousseau scored the OT goal in game 3, Henri Richard tied the game in game 4 before JC Tremblay scored the SCF GWG.
- The goalie they faced? old Glenn Hall.... nothing matters, just 0.916% and 2.43 GAA. A sweep but an honourable sweep.

Another one. With the inclusion of Pavel Datsyuk into HHOF in 2024, 2002 Detroit Red Wings became the first ever team to ice 4 HOF centres in their depth chart (Since the four lines FW became common).

1C : Fedorov (HHOF 2015)
2C : Yzerman (HHOF 2009)
3C : Larionov (HHOF 2008, TGC)
4C : Datsyuk (HHOF 2024, TGC)

3 Russians, 1 Canadian.

somewhat related: per the youngest/oldest team thread, I found it interesting that of the 12 oldest teams ever iced in the NHL, a staggering 8 were Red Wings teams between 2001 to 2011

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

This might be already known but the closest sweep in SCF was in 1968 where Habs outmuscled the Blues 4-0.

This is the score of such games:

Game 1: 3-2 Habs (OT)
Game 2: 1-0 Habs
Game 3: 4-3 Habs (OT)
Game 4: 3-2 Habs

- All games won by only 1 single goal.
- Lemaire scored the OT goal in game 1, Savard scored the short-handed goal to win game 2, Rousseau scored the OT goal in game 3, Henri Richard tied the game in game 4 before JC Tremblay scored the SCF GWG.
- The goalie they faced? old Glenn Hall.... nothing matters, just 0.916% and 2.43 GAA. A sweep but an honourable sweep.

The Habs also swept the Sabres in the 2nd round of the 1993 playoffs:

Every score was 4-3
The three last games were decided in OT.

 

[overpass]

Janne Laukkanen was a solid depth defender for the Sens in the late 90s as they went from the bottom of the league to the playoffs.

And as far as I can tell, he's the unlikely player who played the most ice time in his final NHL game, at least since ice time was tracked starting in 1997. Laukkanen was on the ice for 31 minutes and 52 seconds as the Lightning lost an overtime Game 5 to the Devils in 2003. I believe it was also his final professional hockey game.

 

[Tampa GM]

For 17th(Would have been 18 without the lock-out) straight seasons from 1998 until 2016 Vancouver Canucks leading scorer was raised to a hockeyplayer on this small outdoor rink a few kilometers away from Ornskoldsvik.

In the 54 years with Vancouver in NHL, a player from MoDo has been top 3 in scoring for the Vancouver 26 years.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Only one player in NHL history has scored 4 points in the 3rd period of a game 7.

Matt Labanc

 

[GRob83]

Joe Ironside is the only goaltender in NHL History to have exactly 1 Shutout and 0 Wins. He was also the 1st Jewish goaltender to play in the league.

From Wikipedia:
He was called up to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL. He played one game, a 0–0 tie that went to 10 minutes of overtime. Ironstone asked for double the contract rate for the game, an offer which was accepted by the Leafs' owner Conn Smythe. However, Smythe informed Ironstone that would be the last game he would ever play in the NHL, which ultimately was the case.

 

[The Panther]

7 NHL players have scored 35 or more points in one playoff season, occurring 11 times in total:

5 x Wayne Gretzky (47, 43, 40, 38, 35)
1 x Mario Lemieux (44)
1 x Connor McDavid (42)
1 x Paul Coffey (37)
1 x Evgeni Malkin (36)
1 x Mike Bossy (35)
1 x Doug Gilmour (35)

26 NHL players have scored 30 or more points in one playoff season, occurring 38 times in total:

6 x Wayne Gretzky (47, 43, 40, 38, 35, 34)
3 x Mark Messier (34, 31, 30)
2 x Mario Lemieux (44, 34)
2 x Connor McDavid (42, 33)
2 x Nikita Kucherov (34, 32)
2 x Leon Draisaitl (32, 31)
2 x Jari Kurri (31, 31)
1 x Paul Coffey (37)
1 x Evgeni Malkin (36)
1 x Mike Bossy (35)
1 x Doug Gilmour (35)
1 x Joe Sakic (34)
1 x Brian Leetch (34)
1 x Mark Recchi (34)
1 x Kevin Stevens (33)
1 x Brayden Point (33)
1 x Rick Middleton (33)
1 x Barry Pederson (32)
1 x Evgeny Kuznetsov (32)
1 x Evan Bouchard (32)
1 x Craig Simpson (31)
1 x Pavel Bure (31)
1 x Sydney Crosby (31)
1 x Al MacInnis (31)
1 x Daniel Brière (30)
1 x Logan Couture (30)

Amazingly, 16 of the 38 occurrences (42%) have been done by Edmonton Oilers!

 

[Voight]

Borrowing this from a reddit post:

Every team that acquired Shayne Corson got worse immediately, and the team that gave him up immediately improved.

1991-92 MTL (with Corson) - 93 points >>>> 1992-93 (without) 102 points, Stanley Cup

1991-92 EDM (without Corson) - 82 points >>>>>> 1992-93 (with) 60 points

1994-95 EDM (with Corson) - 38 points in 48 games (65 point pace) >>>> 1995-96 (without) 68 points

1994-95 STL (without Corson) - 61 points in 48 games (104-point pace) >>>> 1995-96 (with) 80 points

1996-97 STL - 5-6-0 with Corson, 31-29-11 without

1995-96 MTL (without Corson) - 90 points >>>>> 1996-97 (with) 77 points

1999-00 TOR (without Corson) - 100 points >>>>> 2000-01 (with) 90 points

2002-03 TOR (with Corson) - 98 points >>>>>> 2003-04 (without) 103 points

2002-03 DAL (without Corson) - 111 points >>>>> 2003-04 (with) 97 points

 

[CaptBrannigan]

Janne Laukkanen was a solid depth defender for the Sens in the late 90s as they went from the bottom of the league to the playoffs.

And as far as I can tell, he's the unlikely player who played the most ice time in his final NHL game, at least since ice time was tracked starting in 1997. Laukkanen was on the ice for 31 minutes and 52 seconds as the Lightning lost an overtime Game 5 to the Devils in 2003. I believe it was also his final professional hockey game.

MEET THE LIGHTNING

GOALIES

www.tampabay.com

Equally obscure, that was not intended to be his final game. He came to 2003-04 training camp but an arthritic hip led to retirement. I cannot recall if he got into a preseason game before packing it in for good.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Brooks Laich assisted on William Nylander’s first career goal, and Michael Nylander’s last career goal

 

[The Pale King]

Most of you are aware that Larry Robinson is the all-time +/- leader at +722 for his career. But there are only two franchises he didn't have a postive rating against. Can you name them without looking?

The first is somewhat surprising: the Montreal Canadiens. Robinson played 7 games against his former team while a member of the Los Angeles Kings, going a combined -3. Not shocking, as Robinson was in his late 30s and Montreal was still a very strong team in the late 80s, early 90s.

But the second team is the San Jose Sharks. Robinson played 7 games against them in his final season, picking up an even 0 across the games. This surprised me because a) I didn't realize Robinson stuck around long enough to dress in a game against the San Jose and b) the Sharks were awful that year, dead last in goals for and goals against.

If Robinson would have stuck around an extra year, he would have got 7 more games against an even worst Sharks team, not to mention a chance to play his former team in the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

[The Panther]

With Leon Draisaitl’s new contract, I was thinking about his stats for Edmonton and how he’s sort of a unique player. A three-time 50-goal scorer who is also often voted “best passer” in the NHL, Leon’s offensive peak years may (too soon to tell, I guess) go down as the five-year span 2018-19 to 2022-23.

That five-year span unfortunately included the Covid-shutdown and shortened season the following year, which ate into Draisaitl (and others’) peak years. Otherwise, Draisaitl has been an iron-man, playing almost all the games during that five-year span, as well as before and beyond. He appeared in 369 of 373 Oilers’ games (98.9%).

So, how well did Leon do in those five years? He averaged 1.46 points per game, which translates to 120 points per 82 (or 117 points per 80). In none of those seasons did he dip below a 100-point pace.

Then, I was wondering: Disregarding era scoring levels, and just looking at raw stats, how many NHL players have averaged 120 points per 82 games over a consecutive five-season span? To qualify, let’s say the given player has to have appeared in a certain percentage of his team’s games. I’ll arbitrarily set it at 80% (being at 80% actually means the player played only four seasons out of five). In other words, a player has to average 1.46 points-per-game or higher for a consecutive five-season period, while playing at least 80% of the games.

Draisaitl statistically falls at the bottom-end of this, since he’s right at 120 per 82. But how many players are above him?

Okay, so the obvious two:
Gretzky 1982-1986 (2.63 PPG) = 216 points per season
Lemieux 1986-1990 (2.08 PPG) = 171 points per season
(Mario would likely be up in the 180-190 point range if we counted 1989 to 1993… but he appeared in less than 75% of the Pens’ games.)

So, with Wayne at the top and Leon at the bottom, I filled in the other players I’ve found who did this. Here’s what I got:

Gretzky 1982-1986 (2.63 PPG) = 216 points per season
Lemieux 1986-1990 (2.08 PPG) = 171 points per season
Esposito 1971-1975 (1.77 PPG) = 145 points per season
McDavid 2020-2024 (1.70 PPG) = 139 points per season
Lafleur 1975-1979 / 1976-1980 (1.65 PPG) = 135 points per season
Orr 1971-1975 (1.65 PPG) = 135 points per season
Bossy 1982-1986 (1.64 PPG) = 134 points per season
Kurri 1983-1987 (1.58 PPG) = 130 points per season
Dionne 1979-1983 (1.57 PPG) = 129 points per season
Yzerman 1989-1993 (1.57 PPG) = 129 points per season
Šťastný 1982-1986 (1.56 PPG) = 128 points per season
Jágr 1995-1999 / 1996-2000 (1.55 PPG) = 127 points per season
Trottier 1978-1982 (1.54 PPG) = 126 points per season
Coffey 1984-1988 (1.51 PPG) = 124 points per season
Oates 1990-1994 (1.49 PPG) = 122 points per season
MacKinnon 2020-2024 (1.48 PPG) = 121 points per season
Draisaitl 2019-2023 (1.46 PPG) = 120 points per season

Did I miss anyone? I'm pretty sure I didn't, but let me know if so.

(Eric Lindros was 1% shy of 80% of games-played and 0.01 points-per-game off making it onto the list for the 1994-1998 period. Sidney Crosby is close from 2007-2011, just making it to over 80% of games played at scoring at 1.42 PPG. Nikita Kucherov doesn’t make it due to the 80% of games played minimum.)

Anyway, the only post-LockOut guys to manage this are McDavid, MacKinnon, and Draisaitl. In fact, those are the only 3 to do it this century.

 

[frisco]

Mike Cammalleri scored 13 playoff goals in 2010. He recorded a total of 17 goals in his playoff career.

Fernando Pisani scored 14 playoff goals in 2006. He recorded a total of 15 goals in his playoff career.

John Druce scored 14 playoff goals in 1990. He recorded a total of 17 goals in his playoff career.

Marcel Bonin scored 10 playoff goals in 1959. He recorded a total of 11 goals in his playoff career.

My Best-Carey

 

[frisco]

Maurice Richard held the playoff single-season goal record (12) from 1944 until 1970 (Esposito 13). Jean Beliveau tied Richard with 12 in 1956.

Reggie Leach has held the playoff single-season goal record (19) from 1976 to present. Jari Kurri tied Leach with 19 in 1985.

My Best-Carey

 

[The Panther]

Jari Kurri tied Leach with 19 in 1985.

When Kurri did this, he scored 12 of the 19 (63% of his goals) in one series.

 

[The Panther]

Back to Jari Kurri in 1984-85, his best season:

This is Jari's stat-line, regular season + playoffs, from October 14th 1984 through May 16th 1985:

84 GP: 89G + 69A = 158 PTS (+97)

So, yeah, 89 goals and 158 points in 84 games isn't bad. Plus 97 is all right.

Truly one of the very greatest NHL seasons by a winger in history.

 

[jigglysquishy]

Back to Jari Kurri in 1984-85, his best season:

This is Jari's stat-line, regular season + playoffs, from October 14th 1984 through May 16th 1985:

84 GP: 89G + 69A = 158 PTS (+97)

So, yeah, 89 goals and 158 points in 84 games isn't bad. Plus 97 is all right.

Truly one of the very greatest NHL seasons by a winger in history.

Now you have me curious on what Gretzky did in the same time frame.

91 GP 83 G 159 A 242 P +121

 

[The Panther]

Now you have me curious on what Gretzky did in the same time frame.

91 GP 83 G 159 A 242 P +121

Well, Gretzky's 1984-85 stats in total (RS + playoffs) kind of tell their own story:

98GP: 90G + 165A = 255 PTS (+127)

 

[alko]

Mike Cammalleri scored 13 playoff goals in 2010. He recorded a total of 17 goals in his playoff career.

Fernando Pisani scored 14 playoff goals in 2006. He recorded a total of 15 goals in his playoff career.

John Druce scored 14 playoff goals in 1990. He recorded a total of 17 goals in his playoff career.

Marcel Bonin scored 10 playoff goals in 1959. He recorded a total of 11 goals in his playoff career.

My Best-Carey

We should expand this also for games played:

Cammalleri - 32 games
Pisani - 33
Druce - 53
Bonin - 50

Druce is amazing. In this season, he had 14 playoff goals, he scored only 8 goals in regular season (45 games)

 

[reckoning]

In Gilbert Perreault's 11th career game on Nov 1/70, he moved into sole possession of the top place on the Buffalo Sabres all-time point scoring list, and he has stayed in that spot since.

Perreault finished his career with 1,326 points. Among active Sabres, the highest is Rasmus Dahlin at 292 points. So Perreault's spot is safe for at least another decade.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

In Gilbert Perreault's 11th career game on Nov 1/70, he moved into sole possession of the top place on the Buffalo Sabres all-time point scoring list

 

[The Panther]

In Gilbert Perreault's 11th career game on Nov 1/70, he moved into sole possession of the top place on the Buffalo Sabres all-time point scoring list, and he has stayed in that spot since.

Perreault finished his career with 1,326 points. Among active Sabres, the highest is Rasmus Dahlin at 292 points. So Perreault's spot is safe for at least another decade.

That's killer!

Similarly, on October 14th 1979, the Oilers' franchise scoring leader was Brett Callighen, with 5 points.
On October 19th, 1979, that franchise lead was then shared between Callighen and Blair MacDonald, with 8 points. Through October 21st, they continued to share the lead with 10 points. On October 23rd, Blair MacDonald took sole posession with 11 points and he held this until November 8th, now with 18 points.

On November 11th, 1979, MacDonald was 'caught' by Wayne Gretzky, now each with 18 points. However, MacDonald pulled ahead again, by November 15th, with 23 points to Gretzky's 22. By November 18th, they were tied again.

Sadly for Blair MacDonald, however, Wayne Gretzky had a 4 point game vs. Toronto on November 21st, 1979, and assumed the Oilers' franchise scoring lead with 29 points to MacDonald's 28.

So, from November 21st 1979 to today (almost 45 years), Wayne has led the Oilers in franchise scoring. But for the franchise's first 19 games, he didn't.

 

[Crosby2010]

Not hockey, but does hockey have a stat quite like this? Observe:

Nolan Ryan is the only pitcher in MLB history to pitch to the most recent three single season home run leaders in his career. Roger Maris, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. Unreal. And since Sammy Sosa briefly held that honour in the 1998 season before it ended, he too faced Ryan in his career a few times (I assume) since he was a White Sox player when Ryan was with the Rangers and they'd have played each other.

 

[The Panther]

Not hockey, but does hockey have a stat quite like this? Observe:

Nolan Ryan is the only pitcher in MLB history to pitch to the most recent three single season home run leaders in his career. Roger Maris, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds. Unreal. And since Sammy Sosa briefly held that honour in the 1998 season before it ended, he too faced Ryan in his career a few times (I assume) since he was a White Sox player when Ryan was with the Rangers and they'd have played each other.

If Messier had played one more season (2005-06), we could have said he played vs. Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, and Sidney Crosby.

How about Chris Chelios? He played with Guy Lafleur, and against Brad Park, Terry O'Reilly, Mario Lemieux, and Sidney Crosby / Alex Ovechkin.