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Obscure playoff stats that might surprise you

Big Phil

Big Phil

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Nov 2, 2003
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There have been three penalty shots in the history of playoff overtime. Just three. None have scored, although Alexei Morozov hit the post. They were in 1996, 1998 and this year in 2016. Jaromir Jagr played in every single one of those games.

While we're at it, two of the top 5 longest games in playoff history Jagr also played in.

Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier and Sidney Crosby have a combined zero playoff overtime goals.

Bob Probert held the Red Wings single season playoff points record set in 1988 with 21 points until Fedorov broke it in 1995. It is true that the likes of Gordie Howe or Ted Lindsay would have had more than 21 points had there been more than two playoff rounds in the original 6 but it is still an interesting stat for Probert.

Martin Brodeur has a 16-24 career playoff overtime record despite the fact we would all consider him to be great in the postseason, and rightly so.

Bob Bourne led the Islanders in playoff scoring in 1983 - their last Cup.

Washington never had a 3-0 series lead against an opponent until this year against the Flyers. Since they lost the next two games it means in their history they have never had a sweep. I can remember times they squandered a 2-0 series lead but this stat surprised me when I heard it last week.

Chris Drury is tied for 5th with Glenn Anderson and Mike Bossy for playoff game winning goals. Patrick Marleau is tied for 8th and has more than Yzerman, Messier, Lafleur, Trottier, Kurri.
 
Most points, one playoff series?

Easy, right? That guy from the 80s who scored a lot...


Rick Middleton.



Nifty Rick scored 19 points in one playoff series in 1983, against Buffalo in the second round (including a Gretzky-tying 14 assists).

The Bruins scored 33 times in the series, meaning Middleton factored into 58% of the team's goals, which is pretty great, too.

Here was the series breakdown for Middleton:

Game 1: Buffalo 7 @ Boston 4
Middleton - 2 assists

Game 2: Buffalo 3 @ Boston 5
Middleton - 1 goal, 2 assists

Game 3: Boston 3 @ Buffalo 4
Middleton - 2 assists

Game 4: Boston 6 @ Buffalo 2
Middleton - 2 goals, 4 assists

Game 5: Buffalo 0 @ Boston 9
Middleton - 2 goals, 2 assists

Game 6: Boston 3 @ Buffalo 5
Middleton - no points

Game 7: Buffalo 2 @ Boston 3
Middleton - 2 assists
 
Big Phil said:
Martin Brodeur has a 16-24 career playoff overtime record despite the fact we would all consider him to be great in the postseason, and rightly so.
Click to expand...

It's actually pretty astounding to know that a goaltender has even played 40 playoff overtime games.
 
Big Phil said:
There have been three penalty shots in the history of playoff overtime. Just three. None have scored, although Alexei Morozov hit the post. They were in 1996, 1998 and this year in 2016. Jaromir Jagr played in every single one of those games.
Click to expand...

That is so unlikely to happen that Jagr would be in all of those games, or even that it took until 1996 for there to be an overtime penalty shot.
 
SB164 said:
It's actually pretty astounding to know that a goaltender has even played 40 playoff overtime games.
Click to expand...

Patrick Roy played 58 (I think) playoffs overtime games (including 11 in 1993). When a goalie have a 2 or more Stanley cup run or make the playoffs (almost) every years of his career, it's not surprising that he plays 40 or more playoffs OT games (I'm pretty sure Chris Osgood played less than that thought).
 
SB164 said:
It's actually pretty astounding to know that a goaltender has even played 40 playoff overtime games.
Click to expand...

True enough, but it adds up. When a goalie has deep runs you don't even think about it until later. Corey Crawford has already played in 27 of them.

kaiser matias said:
That is so unlikely to happen that Jagr would be in all of those games, or even that it took until 1996 for there to be an overtime penalty shot.
Click to expand...

Here is something else interesting and I just thought of it. The first time a penalty shot was awarded in overtime was also that classic 4OT game in 1996 with the Pens and Caps. Which, in turn is the 5th longest game in NHL history (3rd at the time it happened). Joe Juneau took the shot for Washington who had he scored would have taken a 3-1 series lead on Pittsburgh but he did one of the most effortless attempts on a penalty shot I've ever seen on Ken Wregget. I understand he's probably trying to go five-hole here but still. check it out at 4:50



The Panther said:
Most points, one playoff series?

Easy, right? That guy from the 80s who scored a lot...


Rick Middleton.



Nifty Rick scored 19 points in one playoff series in 1983, against Buffalo in the second round (including a Gretzky-tying 14 assists).

The Bruins scored 33 times in the series, meaning Middleton factored into 58% of the team's goals, which is pretty great, too.

Here was the series breakdown for Middleton:

Game 1: Buffalo 7 @ Boston 4
Middleton - 2 assists

Game 2: Buffalo 3 @ Boston 5
Middleton - 1 goal, 2 assists

Game 3: Boston 3 @ Buffalo 4
Middleton - 2 assists

Game 4: Boston 6 @ Buffalo 2
Middleton - 2 goals, 4 assists

Game 5: Buffalo 0 @ Boston 9
Middleton - 2 goals, 2 assists

Game 6: Boston 3 @ Buffalo 5
Middleton - no points

Game 7: Buffalo 2 @ Boston 3
Middleton - 2 assists
Click to expand...

Yeah, an amazing series. You know the funny thing is the Bruins needed an overtime goal from Brad Park on a bit of a broken play to win that series in Game 7. Can you imagine if the Sabres scored and won that series? 19 points and you aren't moving on? Yikes!
 
Another obscure stat. The 10 longest games in NHL history all seem to have happened bunched together.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=30998

In chronological order:
1930, 1933, 1936, 1943, 1987, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008.

Strange. From 1943 to 1987 there was nothing. I will have to look it up but was there even a 4th overtime game then? A bunch in the depression era/WWII era and then from 1996-'08. Just seems so............random. No rhyme or reason to it. I mean what would the reason even be why this never happened in 44 years?
 
Big Phil said:
Another obscure stat. The 10 longest games in NHL history all seem to have happened bunched together.
http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=30998

In chronological order:
1930, 1933, 1936, 1943, 1987, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2008.

Strange. From 1943 to 1987 there was nothing. I will have to look it up but was there even a 4th overtime game then? A bunch in the depression era/WWII era and then from 1996-'08. Just seems so............random. No rhyme or reason to it. I mean what would the reason even be why this never happened in 44 years?
Click to expand...

FWIW, the 12th longest game in history was a 4OT tilt in 1951 ending after 61:09 of OT. But there indeed does seem to be a gap there, as the next game on the list from that time period is only the 24th longest game (a 1961 game requiring 52:12 of OT), followed by the 36th longest.

Only 13 NHL games have ever gone beyond 3OT (9 ending in 4OT, 2 in 5OT and 2 in 6OT), so 4OT is a rare enough occurrence in any era, with a tiny sample size.
 
There have been 40 overtime goals scored in Game 7 in playoff history. The home team has a 20-20 record. It might surprise people that not only was there a 14 year hiatus between 1954 and 1968 for one of these games but that the road team is just as likely to score as the home team. The first 5 times this happened however, the home team won.
 
It's the WHA, but Andre Lacroix had 798 points in 551 regular season games (1.44 points per game) and only 43 points in 48 playoff games (0.89 points per game).
 
Big Phil said:
Washington never had a 3-0 series lead against an opponent until this year against the Flyers. Since they lost the next two games it means in their history they have never had a sweep. I can remember times they squandered a 2-0 series lead but this stat surprised me when I heard it last week.
Click to expand...

The Capitals swept a couple best of 5 series in the 80s

83-84 - swept the Flyers 3-0
85-86 - swept the Islanders 3-0
 
From 1981 through 1988, Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri each scored 79 goals in 117 playoff games.

In the 80s, with Winnipeg, Dale Hawerchuk scored 0 game-winning goals. Gilles Hamel scored 2.

In 1990, John Druce scored 14 playoff goals in 15 games (for Washington). He thereafter scored 3 goals in the remaining 37 playoff games in his career.
 
Fresh Prince said:
Patrick Roy played 58 (I think) playoffs overtime games (including 11 in 1993). When a goalie have a 2 or more Stanley cup run or make the playoffs (almost) every years of his career, it's not surprising that he plays 40 or more playoffs OT games (I'm pretty sure Chris Osgood played less than that thought).
Click to expand...

Here's all goaltenders from 1972 through 2015:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=115288927&postcount=16

Patrick did have 58, quite a bit more than any others.
 
ytsur said:
Wayne Gretzky scored or assisted 3 Stanley Cup-winning goals.
Click to expand...

If that's the number of times he scored the GWG of the last game in the Stanley Cup Finals...

It's good, because it means that Gretzky participated in 75% of such goals in which his team won (he won 4 Cups), but there has to be some players with more of such goals.
 
Fun ones fresh from HR :

The Penguins play .500 hockey in game 's (7-7).
But they're 1.000 when said game 7 is an away game (5-0).

There's also only one team with more than 5 wins Game 7s, away (Habs; 6-6).

Other fun fact : The Bruins are the team that played the most Game 7s (tied with the Wings), with 25. Interestingly, only 5 of those 25 games were played Away (and they sport a glorious 1-4).
 
MXD said:
Fun ones fresh from HR :

The Penguins play .500 hockey in game 's (7-7).
But they're 1.000 when said game 7 is an away game (5-0).

There's also only one team with more than 5 wins Game 7s, away (Habs; 6-6).

Other fun fact : The Bruins are the team that played the most Game 7s (tied with the Wings), with 25. Interestingly, only 5 of those 25 games were played Away (and they sport a glorious 1-4).
Click to expand...

3 of them were in Montreal.

The one they won was for the cup.
 
ytsur said:
Wayne Gretzky scored or assisted 3 Stanley Cup-winning goals.
Click to expand...

Hard to believe, that 1985 was the only year this didn't happen despite the fact that the clinching game was a blowout. 1984 he assists on it, 1987 he does and 1988 he scored it.
 
The 'Stanley Cup winning goal' is interesting, but not really meaningful by itself. In Gretzky's case, he scored the first two goals of the '84 Final game, which were more important than the actual winning goal (which he assisted on). In '85, he didn't factor into the game-winner, but he had 4 points. In '88, he scored the game-winner, but it felt like it was already clinched when he scored.

The game-winning goals thing is cool, but I would suggest it's only meaningful with a really large sample size.
 
I haven't fact checked this, so I feel a little cheap bringing it up, but being that playoff OT goals are so rare (most players retire having never scored one) I think this is safe.

There is only one player who's scored a playoff overtime goal both for, and against the same team. Who is it?
 
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