Players who got very close to a milestone... and failed.

[The Panther]

The endless "Will Ovechkin reach 895 goals?" threads on the main board got me thinking of three possibilities for Ovechkin's career goals totals:
1) He retires soon, and isn't very close.
2) He breaks the all-time goals record.
3) He plays a few more years, gets within 8 or 10 goals... and fails to reach it.

Obviously (2) is best and (1) is unlikely. But (3) is the one to avoid! Can you imagine if Ovechkin got that close to a major NHL record -- basically akin to Hank Aaron on Babe Ruth in the early 70s -- and then failed to reach it?? The NHL would be utterly distraught. I mean, they'd probably force Ovechkin to play in a wheelchair, if necessary, just to eventually get the record and maximize fan interest around North America.

So, then, I'm wondering: What are historical examples of players who got very close to any kind of major milestone... but then just failed to reach it?

Click to read more...

 

[Brodeur]

Paul Kariya finishing with 989 points in 989 games came to mind.

Alexander Mogilny ended with 990 games. Mike Modano infamously had 1499 games. Not sure if Martin Brodeur cared about hitting 700 wins but he fell short at 691.

 

[reckoning]

In 89-90 Mario Lemieux's point streak was at 46 games, just five short of Gretzky's record, but ended when he had to pull out midway during a game against the Rangers when his back pain became too much to bear.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Glenn Anderson finished his career with 498 goals and 1,099 points.

I've always found it interesting how Lemieux, Yzerman and Messier all came within 10 goals of 700.

HOH's favourite player, Dave Andreychuk, finished one point shy of the century mark two years in a row.

 

[MadLuke]

Lemieux missed the 200 points season mark by a single one.

 

[red devil]

Andrei Markov played 990 games all for the Canadiens

Gordie Howe never scored 50 goals in a season. The most he ever had was 49 in the 1952-53 season.

 

[The Panther]

Glenn Anderson finished his career with 498 goals and 1,099 points.

Yeah, that's always burned me a bit. When Andy was signed by Edmonton to finish his career, they were probably all thinking, "Well, at least he'll get his 500th goal as an Oiler!" Nope.

Gordie Howe never scored 50 goals in a season. The most he ever had was 49 in the 1952-53 season.

True dat, but 70 game seasons.

 

[VancouverFanInNYC]

Less of a career milestone but one of the biggest heartbreaks when I was a young Canucks fan was when the 2002 - 2003 Vancouver team (and specifically Markus Naslund) choked badly against a very weak LA Kings team on the final game of the season. Three to four major milestones from Naslund and Vancouver were at stake:
1.) Markus Naslund winning the Art Ross (he was two points away), in a scoring race he led pretty much the entire season
2.) Markus Naslund winning the Maurice Richard (he was two goals away), in a goal tally race he led virtually all season
3.) The Vancouver Canucks winning the division (which would have set them up against an easier 7th-seeded Minnesota Wilds match-up in the first round of the playoffs)
4.) Had Naslund scored two points achieving all of the above, he likely would have won the Hart trophy that year

Colorado ended up having a huge game for the final regular season outing where I think Vancouver either got shut-off or held two one goal. Markus Naslund ended up losing the Art Ross to his child-hood best friend, Peter Forsberg (who rightfully probably should have won it in retrospect as he did it in 72 games that year). He also lost the Maurice Richard to Milan Hejduk that day. Naslund led both races the entire season and it was sad to watch them piss it away in the final game against a beatable team. Losing both trophies also contributed to Naslund losing the Hart (to Forsberg) as I am fairly certain he would had swept the field had he shown up big that final game as Naslund won the Lester Pearson that year (showcasing how his peers truly appreciated his significance, vs. Forsberg who played on a deep / stacked Colorado team).

Losing the division on the last day of the season also sucked and thus began Naslund and Bertuzzi's reputation as guys who couldn't close when the lights shone the brightest. 20 years have since past and I forgive them - but at the time it was pretty disappointing and they never shook over the 'choker' label. They actually had the biggest chance to redeem themself as Colorado (who played the 7th seed Wilds) actually got beat eliminated in game 7 by a nifty Andrew Brunette goal and Vancouver beat the much tougher St. Louis team. In the second round, it all looked like maybe losing the division was worth it when Vancouver led 3 - 1 in the series against the Minnesota Wilds. Unfortunately, the rest of history with Vancouver losing three games in a row (including game 7, where we led by two in the third period) with Naslund and Bertuzzi failing to show up big to bring the team to the conference finals.

Quite a shame as he would have cemented himself as one of the greatest Swedes ever if he came up big that final game. His career was never really the same after with the Steve Moore hit the next year, losing in game 7 of overtime the next year without Bertuzzi, sitting out the Olympics that Sweden won, etc... Also 2003 was a lost year as Vancouver could have fared well against Anaheim in the conference finals and maybe even against New Jersey. Frankly, I still reminisce Naslund with nothing but warm and fuzzy memories and will remember him as one of my favorite players ever. But he was always one of these flawed heroes who earnestly tried so hard and proudly went so far, but came just an inch / breath short from rewriting his legacy.

 

[alko]

Wayne Gretzky:
1487 games played => 13 games to 1500
894 goals=> only 6 goals to 900
1963 assists => 37 assists to 2000
2857 points => 143 points to 3000

Games, goals and assists could be done in one season. Points in two. He retired as a 38 years old guy.

 

[Prsut18]

Andrei Markov played 990 games all for the Canadiens

Gordie Howe never scored 50 goals in a season. The most he ever had was 49 in the 1952-53 season.

Plekanec was also close to play 1000 for Montreal.. he eventually made it to 1001, but with 17 games with Leafs

 

[brachyrynchos]

Rick Tocchet was 48 points and 30 penalty minutes short of joining the 1000 pts-3000 penalty minutes club with Dale Hunter.

 

[frisco]

Kind of a backward one, but if Jagr would've scored 30 instead of 27 in his rookie year he'd have the most consecutive 30-goal season record with 16. Instead he's tied with Gartner and Ovie with 15.

My Best-Carey

 

[BenchBrawl]

Ovechkin came close to score 50 goals in 10 season (maybe soon 11).

1 goal away from 50 in 2018.

Then he would obviously had done it in 2020 without the pandemics (he had 48 goals in 68 games).

 

[BenchBrawl]

Lemieux missed the 200 points season mark by a single one.

This will forever be the most annoying example of a player just missing a milestone

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Rick Middleton with 988 career points.

If he had hung around for 1 more season and gotten those 12 points, he'd be in the HOF already (his exclusion is a joke given who is in)

 

[MS]

Rick Middleton with 988 career points.

If he had hung around for 1 more season and gotten those 12 points, he'd be in the HOF already (his exclusion is a joke given who is in)

I've compared Middleton retiring in 1988 with Lanny MacDonald hanging around for the 88-89 season and hitting every milestone imaginable on a few occasions.

 

[GMR]

Probert - 398 PIM in 1988
McSorley - 399 PIM in 1993

Seriously, couldn't they take one more minor penalty to break 400?

Lemieux and Yzerman both finished just under 700 career goals.

Messier retired just shy of Howe's record for games played.

 

[crobro]

Steve Larmer consecutive games streak due to holdout

 

[JJ18Sniper]

Wrong sport for this, but whenever I think of a milestone that was just missed, I think of Lou Gehrig. 493 home-runs.

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Frank Mahovlich came agonizingly close to 50 goals twice.

 

[Big Phil]

Steve Larmer consecutive games streak due to holdout

First one I thought of immediately. I guess you can blame Bill Wirtz on this one. Or Larmer maybe? Whoever was the one more to blame for him holding out. Probably Wirtz for being cheap. Anyway, my guess is Larmer wouldn't trade that in since it led to his trade to the Rangers, and the Cup a few months later in 1994. But a full season in 1994 for him and he has that record from Doug Jarvis. However, I guess Kessel is on his way to breaking this as well as Yandle, if I recall.

I am half joking when I say this, but Gretzky getting "only" 196 points in 1983. The only time in a 5 year span he didn't get 200+. The lazy no good for nothing bum! I took a look at the 1983 season and his "problem" months were October and February, both times only averaging 2.1 PPG.

So far the likes of MacKinnon and Stamkos have come very close to 100 point seasons to no avail. Stammer could hit that this year though possibly. MacKinnon, if he doesn't do it this year I would assume does other times in his career.

 

[JJ18Sniper]

First one I thought of immediately. I guess you can blame Bill Wirtz on this one. Or Larmer maybe? Whoever was the one more to blame for him holding out. Probably Wirtz for being cheap. Anyway, my guess is Larmer wouldn't trade that in since it led to his trade to the Rangers, and the Cup a few months later in 1994. But a full season in 1994 for him and he has that record from Doug Jarvis. However, I guess Kessel is on his way to breaking this as well as Yandle, if I recall.

I am half joking when I say this, but Gretzky getting "only" 196 points in 1983. The only time in a 5 year span he didn't get 200+. The lazy no good for nothing bum! I took a look at the 1983 season and his "problem" months were October and February, both times only averaging 2.1 PPG.

So far the likes of MacKinnon and Stamkos have come very close to 100 point seasons to no avail. Stammer could hit that this year though possibly. MacKinnon, if he doesn't do it this year I would assume does other times in his career.

Good article on his situation: Steve Larmer: I have no regrets
I was still surprised he retired at 33 after the lockout season as he was still producing.

 

[MS]

Probert - 398 PIM in 1988
McSorley - 399 PIM in 1993

Seriously, couldn't they take one more minor penalty to break 400?

Lemieux and Yzerman both finished just under 700 career goals.

Messier retired just shy of Howe's record for games played.

Probert was going for 30 goals and 300 PIM and finished just short on both.

I remember an interview at the time where Probert said his main focus was to score a goal and if he did that, then he would have taken the penalty. But he didn't score and obviously didn't want to lose a shift sitting in the penalty box when going for that last goal.

 

[reckoning]

A lot of people forget this, but in 80-81 when Mike Bossy tied Maurice Richard's record of 50 goals in 50 games, Charlie Simmer was chasing the same record. They each played game #50 on Jan. 24. Going into those games, Bossy had 48 goals, Simmer had 46.

Bossy ended up scoring two third period goals against Quebec to tie the record. Simmer had a hat trick against Boston the same night to finish with 49 in 50.

The strange thing about that game is that Simmer's three goals were the only three shots he had. You'd think the Kings would be trying to set him up more.

 

[Sheppy]

Mike Modano, 1499 games played and Babcock sat him in what would have been 1500.