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

[The Panther]

It's mindboggling that Anderson was stopped at the goal line like that when you consider what a high flyer he was from that high flying era. Compare and contrast his peak and accomplishments with Mike Gartner, whom he was traded for at one point.

Anderson was done as an elite scorer after the 1990 playoffs, and he had already been trending down from his 1981-1986 peaks.

From 1990-91 through 1995-96, he wasn't a strong scorer, though he did have a productive '93 playoffs (partly due to Gilmour).

 

[Stephen]

Anderson was done as an elite scorer after the 1990 playoffs, and he had already been trending down from his 1981-1986 peaks.

From 1990-91 through 1995-96, he wasn't a strong scorer, though he did have a productive '93 playoffs (partly due to Gilmour).

For sure, but so many guys from that generation just piled on the points early and hung onto their careers like they were water skiing into the early 2000s, usually on a sunbelt team. Anderson probably could have gotten his 500+ goals and a little closer to 1200 as a Phoenix Coyote or something.

 

[crobro]

Mahovlich missed 50 by a hair twice

 

[FerrisRox]

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.

He actually never signed with the Oilers to finish his career.

After his stint with the National Team, the Vancouver Canucks signed him, but the rules required him to first clear league-wide waivers as a mid-season signing who had played professionally in Europe that year.

The Oilers claimed him on waivers, but after he scored 4-goals and 10-points in 17-games - and with their playoff chances unlikely - they waived him and he got picked up by the St. Louis Blues. He managed just two goals in 15 games as a Blue to finish just shy of the milestone.

 

[Matsun]

Ovechkin missed out on both the Art Ross and the Richard in the space of two days in 09-10 but it's kinda forgotten since he missed alot of games that season.

On 2010-4-9 with two days left the Art Ross race was down to three men:
Alex Ovechkin 109, 1 game left
Henrik Sedin 108, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 104, 2 games left

At the same time the Richard race was also down to three men:
Alex Ovechkin 50, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 49, 2 games left
Steven Stamkos 48, 2 games left

The next day Sedin, Stamkos and Crosby play and this is now the scoring race:
Henrik Sedin 112, 0 games left
Alex Ovechkin 109, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 104, 1 game left

And this is the Richard race:
Alex Ovechkin 50, 1 game left
Steven Stamkos 50, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 49, 1 game left

Ovechkin has the tiebreaker over Sedin so he needs three points to win the Art Ross. This is what happens the next day when the season ends:
Henrik Sedin 112
Sidney Crosby 109
Alex Ovechkin 109

Richard:
Steven Stamkos 51
Sidney Crosby 51
Alex Ovechkin 50

 

[The Panther]

He actually never signed with the Oilers to finish his career.

After his stint with the National Team, the Vancouver Canucks signed him, but the rules required him to first clear league-wide waivers as a mid-season signing who had played professionally in Europe that year.

The Oilers claimed him on waivers, but after he scored 4-goals and 10-points in 17-games - and with their playoff chances unlikely - they waived him and he got picked up by the St. Louis Blues. He managed just two goals in 15 games as a Blue to finish just shy of the milestone.

I forgot he had two stints with St. Louis...

 

[BigMike79]

McGriff with like 493 home runs.

I honestly think he's been black balled by the HOF. All because he didn't hit another frickin 7 dingers.

In the strike shortened season of 1994, he finished 4th in the NL with 34 Home Runs. If they have no strike, McGriff plays the extra 40 plus games and most likely its way more than the 7 needed for 500

 

[BigMike79]

Tiger Williams retired with the all time record of 3971 Penalty Minutes. Dale Hunter is second with 3565 with over 450 more games played. Tiger needed just one more rough, physical game to break 4000 for his career, a record you can bet the kids college savings, will never be broken.

 

[Big Phil]

It is hard to say if Ovechkin will surpass 894 goals. I think sometimes the way people talk about it they make it seem like it will happen next year. But no, chances are if he does it then it happens in the final year of his contract, which is 2025-'26. Without injuries, yeah he can do it. With them, I don't think so. But that would sort of suck if he has 840 goals and then has a career ending injury.

By the way, with all of this "so close" stuff I thought I'd flip it around and talk about a good moment when someone did hit a milestone, just in the nick of time. Roberto Clemente had exactly 3,000 hits in his MLB career. Then died on December 31, 1972 in a plane crash. Poetic, in a way, that he hit that exclusive milestone.

I always thought Denis Savard struck me as a guy who should have hit 500 goals, since we remember so many of the ones he scored. He had 473. I think if he stays on Chicago and isn't misused like in Montreal, that he hits the magic number.

 

[DRW895]

Ovechkin missed out on both the Art Ross and the Richard in the space of two days in 09-10 but it's kinda forgotten since he missed alot of games that season.

On 2010-4-9 with two days left the Art Ross race was down to three men:
Alex Ovechkin 109, 1 game left
Henrik Sedin 108, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 104, 2 games left

At the same time the Richard race was also down to three men:
Alex Ovechkin 50, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 49, 2 games left
Steven Stamkos 48, 2 games left

The next day Sedin, Stamkos and Crosby play and this is now the scoring race:
Henrik Sedin 112, 0 games left
Alex Ovechkin 109, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 104, 1 game left

And this is the Richard race:
Alex Ovechkin 50, 1 game left
Steven Stamkos 50, 1 game left
Sidney Crosby 49, 1 game left

Ovechkin has the tiebreaker over Sedin so he needs three points to win the Art Ross. This is what happens the next day when the season ends:
Henrik Sedin 112
Sidney Crosby 109
Alex Ovechkin 109

Richard:
Steven Stamkos 51
Sidney Crosby 51
Alex Ovechkin 50

It looked like Islanders with rookie Tavares simply "gave" final game to Penguins, allowing Crosby unfair suprass Ovechkin in Rocket Race.
5 years later Nashville with 2 formers Stars Ribeiro and Neal did the same against Stars and Jamie Benn sensationally won Art Ross over Tavares. Karma is **** Johny.
Never try to robb Oveckin. He will back and revenge will be cruel ha ha

 

[Nick Hansen]

It is hard to say if Ovechkin will surpass 894 goals. I think sometimes the way people talk about it they make it seem like it will happen next year. But no, chances are if he does it then it happens in the final year of his contract, which is 2025-'26. Without injuries, yeah he can do it. With them, I don't think so. But that would sort of suck if he has 840 goals and then has a career ending injury.
...

I always thought Denis Savard struck me as a guy who should have hit 500 goals, since we remember so many of the ones he scored. He had 473. I think if he stays on Chicago and isn't misused like in Montreal, that he hits the magic number.

Huh. Yeah, that surprised me. If you would've asked me: under or over 500? I would've said over for sure.

Doug Gilmour didn't hit 500 either despite playing forever. He did manage to rack up 964 assists, though, which puts him at number 14 for most assists of all time.

 

[Big Phil]

It looked like Islanders with rookie Tavares simply "gave" final game to Penguins, allowing Crosby unfair suprass Ovechkin in Rocket Race.
5 years later Nashville with 2 formers Stars Ribeiro and Neal did the same against Stars and Jamie Benn sensationally won Art Ross over Tavares. Karma is **** Johny.
Never try to robb Oveckin. He will back and revenge will be cruel ha ha

I am not sure if that was it. I think both Crosby and Benn just had really good final games of the season. Benn got a secondary assist with time running out (under a minute if I recall) and that was enough for him to win the Art Ross.

Huh. Yeah, that surprised me. If you would've asked me: under or over 500? I would've said over for sure.

Doug Gilmour didn't hit 500 either despite playing forever. He did manage to rack up 964 assists, though, which puts him at number 14 for most assists of all time.

450 goals for Dougie. 42 at his peak in 1987. Three other times over 30. Yeah, he was a playmaker first and foremost.

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

How about Brett Hull? 86 goals, no empty netters. Gretzky I think had 4 empty netters his signature year, so 88? real goals.

 

[wetcoast]

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.

I think that fans are more concerned with career milestones and players know when it's time to quit.

If Gretzky knew it was time why would he play another season to get 6 more goals, he was just too classy for that and always wanted team achievement ahead of individual ones.

I think most of the greats think this way.

 

[wetcoast]

Glenn Anderson signed with the Canucks during the 95-96 season after starting the year playing somewhere in Europe. He wanted nothing to do with the Oilers with the state they were in. Of course to get back into the league he had to clear waivers. Anderson even called and begged Sather not to do it...but Sather does so mere MINUTES before Anderson was set to clear

The thing is that he doesn't join the Oilers, plays in Germany and with the Canadian National team but then ends up joining the Oilers so he really controlled his own fate to some extent.

I'm not a big fan of his so it's a case of "too bad so sad".

 

[wetcoast]

It looked like Islanders with rookie Tavares simply "gave" final game to Penguins, allowing Crosby unfair suprass Ovechkin in Rocket Race.
5 years later Nashville with 2 formers Stars Ribeiro and Neal did the same against Stars and Jamie Benn sensationally won Art Ross over Tavares. Karma is **** Johny.
Never try to robb Oveckin. He will back and revenge will be cruel ha ha

The thing is that Benn wasn't even near the Art ross then goes on a heater with 10 points in his last 3 games.

Do you really think that rookie Tavares gave Crosby those 2 goals, heck was he even on the ice for them?

 

[DJ Man]

...

By the way, with all of this "so close" stuff I thought I'd flip it around and talk about a good moment when someone did hit a milestone, just in the nick of time. Roberto Clemente had exactly 3,000 hits in his MLB career. Then died on December 31, 1972 in a plane crash. Poetic, in a way, that he hit that exclusive milestone.

...

I'd always wondered what would have happened if Clemente had died with 2,999 hits. Would they examine his career games and try to find another hit, or settled for a footnote on the 3,000+ hit lists? Or maybe renamed it as the 2,999 Hit Club in his honor.

Hank Aaron finished his last National League season with 713 home runs, just one short of Babe Ruth's record. He did survive the off-season, return for a couple of designated hitter years in the American League, and set a new record.

 

[Big Phil]

I'd always wondered what would have happened if Clemente had died with 2,999 hits. Would they examine his career games and try to find another hit, or settled for a footnote on the 3,000+ hit lists? Or maybe renamed it as the 2,999 Hit Club in his honor.

Hank Aaron finished his last National League season with 713 home runs, just one short of Babe Ruth's record. He did survive the off-season, return for a couple of designated hitter years in the American League, and set a new record.

Yeah, it is just one of those things. Barry Sanders by choice retired from the NFL when everyone and their mother knew he could keep playing at an elite level. He didn't break Walter Payton's rushing record which was his for the taking if he played longer. Instead Emmitt Smith broke it and there is always that "Yeah but if Barry didn't retire.................." thing that hangs around that record. So I think with Aaron it definitely would be one of those things that sports fans hate to see since he was so close to it.

I am just glad Clemente hit that milestone.

 

[reckoning]

The thing is that Benn wasn't even near the Art ross then goes on a heater with 10 points in his last 3 games.

The thing I remember most about that was after his last game when it looked like Tavares had it locked up, there was a thread on the main board about how since Tavares was the scoring champion he deserved the Hart because the scoring champion is the best player. Case closed.

Then Benn passes him in the race in his last game.

 

[kaiser matias]

It looked like Islanders with rookie Tavares simply "gave" final game to Penguins, allowing Crosby unfair suprass Ovechkin in Rocket Race.
5 years later Nashville with 2 formers Stars Ribeiro and Neal did the same against Stars and Jamie Benn sensationally won Art Ross over Tavares. Karma is **** Johny.
Never try to robb Oveckin. He will back and revenge will be cruel ha ha

Crosby had always done well against the Islanders, especially in that era, so him exploding like that was not as surprising as it looks. Was wild watching him rack them up though, I was watching to see if Henrik could hold on for the Art Ross that afternoon, after putting up a solid night himself.

 

[WarriorofTime]

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

Often see this cited as one of the "pettiest" things, I'd say it's outright psychotic. Local legend like that... to deny him a milestone like that just.. because? There was no strategy or working margins involved there. That's some psycho stuff. Dude just outright hated players.

 

[Ishdul]

Spezza finished his career with 995 points and Kessel with 992. Spezza was him choosing to start a front office position with the Leafs when he was a marginal player. Kessel seemed like he would sign for the Canucks after he kind of washed out with Vegas but nothing came of it.

 

[DitchMarner]

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.

And of course, Lanny won the Stanley Cup in that final season. That may have been the clincher for his HHOF induction. His decision to continue playing certainly paid off for him.

 

[carjackmalone]

Charlie simmer 50 in 50 twice back to back

50 in 51 both times


Bernie Nichols 50-in 51 in his 70 goal season