Three stars selections (playoffs, 1992-2022)

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

In another recent thread, I made an offhand comment about "three stars" selections from playoff games. Someone (wisely) asked @pnep if he had any data about this and, not surprisingly, he did. I've taken a quick look at the file he posted. I figured this was interesting enough to warrant a separate thread. For now, I'm going to focus on the playoffs (though I might look at the regular season data later on).

A quick note on data quality - pnep's file has results from 1992 to 2022. There have been 2,635 playoff games during that period. We'd therefore expect 2,635 * 3 = 7,905 "three stars" to have been selected. The file actually has 7,640 entries. Therefore the data is approximately 97% complete. I haven't done a deeper dive to determine if the omissions are random, or if certain years are missing (which could disadvantage certain players).

I've come up with a basic weighting system. Being named first star of the game is worth three points, second star is worth two points, and third star is worth one point. There are a number of different weights that can be used, but this is to get the conversation going.

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

Most "three star" points, single playoff run

Player	Season	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Jean-Sebastien Giguere	2003	9	3		33
Tim Thomas	2011	6	6	2	32
Martin Brodeur	2003	6	4	5	31
Miikka Kiprusoff	2004	6	4	3	29
Andrei Vasilevskiy	2021	8	2	1	29
Pekka Rinne	2017	6	2	5	27
Nikolai Khabibulin	2004	7	2	2	27
Tuukka Rask	2019	5	4	3	26
Kirk McLean	1994	5	4	3	26
Carey Price	2021	7	1	3	26
Patrick Roy	2001	5	3	4	25
Evgeni Malkin	2009	5	4	2	25
Cam Ward	2006	5	5		25
Marc-Andre Fleury	2018	7	2		25
Henrik Lundqvist	2015	2	7	4	24
John Vanbiesbrouck	1996	4	4	4	24
Olaf Kolzig	1998	4	5	2	24
Henrik Lundqvist	2012	6	3		24
Dominik Hasek	2002	5	2	4	23
Jonathan Quick	2012	5	3	2	23
Daniel Alfredsson	2007	6	2	1	23
Tuukka Rask	2013	2	7	2	22
Ed Belfour	1999	4	4	2	22
Andrei Vasilevskiy	2022	4	4	2	22
Joe Sakic	1996	5	3	1	22

Not surprisingly, this category is completely dominated by goalies. Just three forwards (and no defensemen) have a spot in the top 25 here.

Not every team played the same number of games. It probably would be more informative to look at this on a per-game basis (but I likely won't have time to do this).

This supports my (subjective) notion that JS Giguere came as close as anybody ever has to "singlehandedly" carrying his team to the Stanley Cup finals.

The most "three star points" in a single playoff run, without ever being named first star? Patrick Lalime in 2002 (14 points - 6x second star, 2x third star).

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

Most "three star" points, single playoff run - excluding goalies

Player	Season	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Evgeni Malkin	2009	5	4	2	25
Daniel Alfredsson	2007	6	2	1	23
Joe Sakic	1996	5	3	1	22
Joe Sakic	2001	3	4	4	21
Evgeny Kuznetsov	2018	4	4	1	21
Victor Hedman	2020	5	1	3	20
Brayden Point	2020	3	5	1	20
Henrik Zetterberg	2008	3	3	4	19
Wayne Gretzky	1993	4	3	1	19
Mark Messier	1994	5	1	2	19
Martin St. Louis	2014	4	3	1	19
Connor McDavid	2022	3	2	5	18
Igor Larionov	1994	3	4	1	18
Cale Makar	2022	3	4	1	18
Sideny Crosby	2009	2	3	5	17
Nikita Kucherov	2020	2	4	3	17
Peter Forsberg	2000	3	3	2	17
Peter Forsberg	2002	3	3	2	17
Joe Nieuwendyk	1999	3	3	2	17
Keith Primeau	2004	2	5	1	17
Ryan Getzlaf	2017	3	4		17
Eric Lindros	1997	4	2	1	17
Brian Leetch	1994	4	2	1	17
Brett Hull	2000	3	4		17
Chris Pronger	2006	3	2	3	16
Jamie Langenbrunner	2003	4	1	2	16
Claude Lemieux	1995	5		1	16

Evgeni Malkin gets the top spot here, but Joe Sakic has two of the top five. McDavid's performance from last spring looks incredible (given that his team was swept in the conference finals).

Again, it would probably be more informative to look at this as a percentage of games played.

It's much harder to stand out as a defensemen. Only Hedman, Makar, Leetch and Pronger are in the top 25.

Most surprising name? I realize this is going back almost 30 years now, but I wasn't expecting to see Igor Larionov here.

jigglysquishy · Feb 2, 2023

Love it! Out of curiosity (since it was spurred the discussion), what are the numbers for Hasek 1999?

Michael Farkas · Feb 2, 2023

jigglysquishy said:
Love it! Out of curiosity (since it was spurred the discussion), what are the numbers for Hasek 1999?

4x First Star
4x Second Star
0x Third Star

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

Comparing the Smythe winner to the "three-stars" leader

Season	Smythe	Leader
1992	Mario Lemieux	Mario Lemieux
1993	Patrick Roy	John LeClair
1994	Brian Leetch	Mark Messier
1995	Claude Lemieux	Martin Brodeur
1996	Joe Sakic	Joe Sakic
1997	Mike Vernon	Mike Vernon
1998	Steve Yzerman	Chris Osgood
1999	Joe Nieuwendyk	Ed Belfour
2000	Scott Stevens	Martin Brodeur
2001	Patrick Roy	Patrick Roy
2002	Nicklas Lidstrom	Dominik Hasek
2003	Jean-Sebastien Giguere	Martin Brodeur
2004	Brad Richards	Nikolai Khabibulin
2006	Cam Ward	Cam Ward
2007	Scott Niedermayer	Ryan Getzlaf
2008	Henrik Zetterberg	Henrik Zetterberg
2009	Evgeni Malkin	Evgeni Malkin
2010	Jonathan Toews	Antti Niemi
2011	Tim Thomas	Tim Thomas
2012	Jonathan Quick	Jonathan Quick
2013	Patrick Kane	Marian Hossa
2014	Justin Williams	Jonathan Quick
2015	Duncan Keith	Corey Crawford
2016	Sidney Crosby	Sidney Crosby
2017	Sidney Crosby	Marc-Andre Fleury
2018	Alex Ovechkin	Holtby/Kuznetsov
2019	Ryan O'Reilly	Jordan Binnington
2020	Victor Hedman	Hedman/Point
2021	Andrei Vasilevskiy	Andrei Vasilevskiy
2022	Cale Makar	Cale Makar

This compares the Conn Smythe winner to the three stars leader each spring. Note that I'm comparing the three stars leader from the winning team only. It's not uncommon for a player on a losing team to lead the playoffs in three stars selections, but they won the Conn Smythe just once since the late 1980's. Therefore, I think limiting this to players on the winning team is appropriate.

The Conn Smythe and three stars leader agrees 14 times in 30 seasons (including ties). As we saw before, this table is dominated by goalies. The netminder is the leader (tied or outright) in 19 seasons - even for goalies who were generally considered to be nothing special (ie Niemi in 2010, Crawford in 2015, Osgood in 1998, etc).

Sidney Crosby has been heavily criticized for winning the 2016 Conn Smythe. As I've mentioned before, objectively it was one of the weakest Smythe wins of the four-round era (starting in 1980). But he did lead the Penguins in three-stars selections (he had 14 "points", Murray had 11, Kessel had 10, and Letang only had 5).

Michael Farkas · Feb 2, 2023

Hasek -
Regular Season: 277 star selections (730 games; 38%)
Playoffs: 42 star selections (116 games; 36.2%)

Brodeur -
Regular Season: 376 (1266 games; 29.7%)
Playoffs: 75 (205 games; 36.6%)

Roy -
Regular Season: 218 (740 games; 29.5%)
Playoffs: 62 (170 games, 36.5%)

Belfour -
Regular Season: 254 (866 games; 29.3%)
Playoffs: 46 (146 games; 31.5%)

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

"All-time" leaders (1992-2022)

Player	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
Martin Brodeur	22	26	26	74
Patrick Roy	21	23	17	61
Henrik Lundqvist	21	21	14	56
Marc-Andre Fleury	27	14	10	51
Sidney Crosby	21	11	17	49
Peter Forsberg	23	11	13	47
Ed Belfour	18	12	15	45
Joe Sakic	16	13	13	42
Dominik Hasek	15	13	14	42
Jaromir Jagr	10	17	14	41
Evgeni Malkin	13	8	19	40
Tuukka Rask	14	14	11	39
Pekka Rinne	15	10	14	39
Steve Yzerman	16	11	11	38
Sergei Fedorov	12	15	10	37
Curtis Joseph	18	12	7	37
Jonathan Quick	14	12	10	36
Alex Ovechkin	7	15	14	36
Nicklas Lidstrom	16	8	11	35
Carey Price	17	10	8	35
Braden Holtby	16	5	13	34
Patrice Bergeron	12	9	12	33
Chris Osgood	16	11	6	33
Andrei Vasilevskiy	18	8	7	33
Nikita Kucherov	10	12	10	32
Marian Hossa	11	13	8	32
Brad Marchand	9	11	12	32

The same two observations hold true here. Goalies dominate the list, and it might be more instructive to look at this on a per-game basis.

Even with those disclaimers in mind, Henrik Lundqvist looks really good by this metric. Fleury was a big surprise.

Dingo · Feb 2, 2023

I really like this, and something I never thought about or would have thought would mean so much to me

the three stars are picked with less politics and drama I think - just the guys who stood out, without thought to it adding to legacy or any preconceived bias.

then, you add them up and it tells a story.

I really like this.

can you do career playoff ‘points’ this way, too?

edit - you posted it as I was writing. Thanks

Hockey Outsider said:
"All-time" leaders (1992-2022)

Player 1st 2nd 3rd Total
Martin Brodeur
22
26
26
74
Patrick Roy
21
23
17
61
Henrik Lundqvist
21
21
14
56
Marc-Andre Fleury
27
14
10
51
Sidney Crosby
21
11
17
49
Peter Forsberg
23
11
13
47
Ed Belfour
18
12
15
45
Joe Sakic
16
13
13
42
Dominik Hasek
15
13
14
42
Jaromir Jagr
10
17
14
41
Evgeni Malkin
13
8
19
40
Tuukka Rask
14
14
11
39
Pekka Rinne
15
10
14
39
Steve Yzerman
16
11
11
38
Sergei Fedorov
12
15
10
37
Curtis Joseph
18
12
7
37
Jonathan Quick
14
12
10
36
Alex Ovechkin
7
15
14
36
Nicklas Lidstrom
16
8
11
35
Carey Price
17
10
8
35
Braden Holtby
16
5
13
34
Patrice Bergeron
12
9
12
33
Chris Osgood
16
11
6
33
Andrei Vasilevskiy
18
8
7
33
Nikita Kucherov
10
12
10
32
Marian Hossa
11
13
8
32
Brad Marchand
9
11
12
32

The same two observations hold true here. Goalies dominate the list, and it might be more instructive to look at this on a per-game basis.

Even with those disclaimers in mind, Henrik Lundqvist looks really good by this metric. Fleury was a big surprise.

I am legitimately looking at a ‘best playoff performers of the last 30 yrs’ here, imo.

Dingo · Feb 2, 2023

I guess, if I had one final request, it would be to do what Farkas has done by per gaming it.
Not for players under 40 or 50 games because of anomalies, but for everyone over about 50 games played.

Also, I love how close Brodeur, Roy and Hasek are in a per game. I never thought Hasek was worse in playoffs, it’s just that he played to top level all the time. I will say that it was easier to stand out as a Star in Buffalo than in Colorado, though.

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

"All-time" leaders (1992-2022) - excluding goalies

Player	1st	2nd	3rd	Total
Sidney Crosby	21	11	17	49
Peter Forsberg	23	11	13	47
Joe Sakic	16	13	13	42
Jaromir Jagr	10	17	14	41
Evgeni Malkin	13	8	19	40
Steve Yzerman	16	11	11	38
Sergei Fedorov	12	15	10	37
Alex Ovechkin	7	15	14	36
Nicklas Lidstrom	16	8	11	35
Patrice Bergeron	12	9	12	33
Nikita Kucherov	10	12	10	32
Brad Marchand	9	11	12	32
Marian Hossa	11	13	8	32
Patrick Marleau	12	7	12	31
Daniel Alfredsson	12	9	8	29
Ryan Getzlaf	9	12	8	29
Chris Pronger	11	9	9	29
Pavel Datsyuk	10	10	8	28
Henrik Zetterberg	10	9	8	27
Joe Pavelski	12	7	8	27
Rod Brind'Amour	6	8	12	26
Patrick Kane	10	9	7	26
Mike Modano	11	8	7	26
Jonathan Toews	8	8	8	24
Martin St. Louis	9	10	4	23
Chris Drury	8	6	9	23
Scott Stevens	6	9	8	23
Patrik Elias	5	8	10	23

This is the last table I'm posting for now. It's the same as the previous table, with the goalies removed.

Generally the names are what we'd expect. For someone without a "signature" playoff run, Jagr's 4th place finish is very impressive. (He played a lot of games, but still looks very good - only slightly behind Sakic, Yzerman and Malkin on a per-game basis).

Bergeron finishes 10th. Although he looks great through "analytics", traditional scoring stats don't show his value. But, it looks like the three star voters can tell that he's bringing a lot that isn't captured by basic stats.

Kucherov looks very good. He's already tied for 11th, and he could become the 6th players over the past ~40 years to get up to 40 "three star points". On the other hand, I thought Kane would look a bit better.

Among the skayers in the top 200 in playoff games during this period, the leaders (most "three star points" per game) are Forsberg (0.31), Crosby (0.27), then Sakic, Yzerman, Ovechkin and Kucherov (0.24). Obviously some of these players played more games past their prime than others.

The leading defensen (per game) are Pronger (0.17), Stevens and Hedman (0.15), Lidstrom (0.13), Pietrangelo (0.12), and Zubov (0.11).

Bryan Smolinski appears to have the record for most games during this period without a single three star selection (123). Right behind him are Bob Rouse (112), Dave Reid (108), Craig Adams (106), and Jon Klemm (105) and Shawn Thornton (105). (As I mentioned in the first post, around 3% of the data is missing, so it's possible I'm short-changing them).

Most disappointing results for Hall of Fame players? The Sedins (0.12 and 0.11 for Daniel and Henrik), Joe Thorton (0.11), Alex Mogilny (0.11), Mark Recchi (0.10), Brendan Shanahan (0.09), Luc Robitaille (0.08) and Dave Andreychuk (0.05 - ouch). Currently-active Steve Stamkos (0.11) really doesn't look good based on this metric.

authentic · Feb 2, 2023

Hockey Outsider said:
"All-time" leaders (1992-2022) - excluding goalies

Player 1st 2nd 3rd Total
Sidney Crosby
21
11
17
49
Peter Forsberg
23
11
13
47
Joe Sakic
16
13
13
42
Jaromir Jagr
10
17
14
41
Evgeni Malkin
13
8
19
40
Steve Yzerman
16
11
11
38
Sergei Fedorov
12
15
10
37
Alex Ovechkin
7
15
14
36
Nicklas Lidstrom
16
8
11
35
Patrice Bergeron
12
9
12
33
Nikita Kucherov
10
12
10
32
Brad Marchand
9
11
12
32
Marian Hossa
11
13
8
32
Patrick Marleau
12
7
12
31
Daniel Alfredsson
12
9
8
29
Ryan Getzlaf
9
12
8
29
Chris Pronger
11
9
9
29
Pavel Datsyuk
10
10
8
28
Henrik Zetterberg
10
9
8
27
Joe Pavelski
12
7
8
27
Rod Brind'Amour
6
8
12
26
Patrick Kane
10
9
7
26
Mike Modano
11
8
7
26
Jonathan Toews
8
8
8
24
Martin St. Louis
9
10
4
23
Chris Drury
8
6
9
23
Scott Stevens
6
9
8
23
Patrik Elias
5
8
10
23

This is the last table I'm posting for now. It's the same as the previous table, with the goalies removed.

Generally the names are what we'd expect. For someone without a "signature" playoff run, Jagr's 4th place finish is very impressive. (He played a lot of games, but still looks very good - only slightly behind Sakic, Yzerman and Malkin on a per-game basis).

Bergeron finishes 10th. Although he looks great through "analytics", traditional scoring stats don't show his value. But, it looks like the three star voters can tell that he's bringing a lot that isn't captured by basic stats.

Kucherov looks very good. He's already tied for 11th, and he could become the 6th players over the past ~40 years to get up to 40 "three star points". On the other hand, I thought Kane would look a bit better.

Among the skayers in the top 200 in playoff games during this period, the leaders (most "three star points" per game) are Forsberg (0.31), Crosby (0.27), then Sakic, Yzerman, Ovechkin and Kucherov (0.24). Obviously some of these players played more games past their prime than others.

The leading defensen (per game) are Pronger (0.17), Stevens and Hedman (0.15), Lidstrom (0.13), Pietrangelo (0.12), and Zubov (0.11).

Bryan Smolinski appears to have the record for most games during this period without a single three star selection (123). Right behind him are Bob Rouse (112), Dave Reid (108), Craig Adams (106), and Jon Klemm (105) and Shawn Thornton (105). (As I mentioned in the first post, around 3% of the data is missing, so it's possible I'm short-changing them).

Most disappointing results for Hall of Fame players? The Sedins (0.12 and 0.11 for Daniel and Henrik), Joe Thorton (0.11), Alex Mogilny (0.11), Mark Recchi (0.10), Brendan Shanahan (0.09), Luc Robitaille (0.08) and Dave Andreychuk (0.05 - ouch). Currently-active Steve Stamkos (0.11) really doesn't look good based on this metric.

This confirms my opinion that Crosby and Forsberg are the best playoff performers of this time period.

bobholly39 · Feb 2, 2023

Any possibility of putting a table together that highlights how many star selections each conn smythe winner had in their MVP year? Curious to see the fluctuations year to year, and if some of the perceived "stronger" smythe winners do well, or vise versa.

I had already pointed out in the other thread how weirdly low Roy in 93 seemed - with only 2 three star selections total throughout the playoffs.

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

bobholly39 said:
Any possibility of putting a table together that highlights how many star selections each conn smythe winner had in their MVP year? Curious to see the fluctuations year to year, and if some of the perceived "stronger" smythe winners do well, or vise versa.

I had already pointed out in the other thread how weirdly low Roy in 93 seemed - with only 2 three star selections total throughout the playoffs.

Player	Season	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Jean-Sebastien Giguere	2003	9	3		33
Tim Thomas	2011	6	6	2	32
Andrei Vasilevskiy	2021	8	2	1	29
Patrick Roy	2001	5	3	4	25
Evgeni Malkin	2009	5	4	2	25
Cam Ward	2006	5	5		25
Jonathan Quick	2012	5	3	2	23
Joe Sakic	1996	5	3	1	22
Victor Hedman	2020	5	1	3	20
Henrik Zetterberg	2008	3	3	4	19
Cale Makar	2022	3	4	1	18
Joe Nieuwendyk	1999	3	3	2	17
Brian Leetch	1994	4	2	1	17
Claude Lemieux	1995	5		1	16
Alex Ovechkin	2018	3	1	4	15
Mario Lemieux	1992	5			15
Sidney Crosby	2016	3	1	3	14
Duncan Keith	2015	4	1		14
Mike Vernon	1997	2	1	5	13
Brad Richards	2004	2	2	3	13
Justin Williams	2014	3	1	2	13
Scott Stevens	2000	3	1	1	12
Steve Yzerman	1998	1	2	4	11
Sideny Crosby	2017	2	2		10
Scott Niedermayer	2007	2	1	1	9
Patrick Knae	2013	2	1	1	9
Joanthan Toews	2010	1	1	3	8
Ryan O'Reilly	2019	2			6
Patrick Roy	1993	1	1		5
Nicklas Lidstrom	2002	1	1		5

For the most part, the results are what we'd expect. Based on this metric, we have JS Giguere (2003) and a few other strong goalie performances near the top, with Malkin (2012) and Sakic (1996) being the top forwards.

Patrick Roy's 1993 run is very low. I'm shocked he was only named one of the three stars twice. This is generally considered one of the greatest playoff runs of all-time. It's tough to imagine why he got fewer selections than (say) Crosby in 2016 or Niedermayer in 2007.

Lemieux's 1992 run also looks really low. So does Lidstrom's 2002, but he's exactly the type of player - quiet and dependable - who would be easy to skip over under the narrow lens of "was he top three in this particular game?"

jigglysquishy · Feb 2, 2023

Hockey Outsider said:
Lemieux's 1992 run also looks really low

I am struggling to data validate this.

Lemieux was twice the first star in first 6 games of the Caps series.

No stars are listed on NHL.com for game 7 (May 1,1992. But Lemieux had 2 points in a 3 1 win, including the opening goal and game winning assist.

Presumably, he would have been named a star. But I can't find any data.

Hockey Outsider · Feb 2, 2023

jigglysquishy said:
I am struggling to data validate this.

Lemieux was twice the first star in first 6 games of the Caps series.

No stars are listed on NHL.com for game 7 (May 1,1992. But Lemieux had 2 points in a 3 1 win, including the opening goal and game winning assist.

Presumably, he would have been named a star. But I can't find any data.

That's a good point. As I mentioned in the first post, around 3% of the data appears to be missing. I think @pnep got his data from NHL.com, so if it's missing there, presumably Lemieux has been short-changed here. (My guess, just by quickly looking at the boxscore, is Lemieux, Francis and Barrasso would have been the three stars).

The other thing that hurts Lemieux is the Penguins didn't play very many games in 19992 (16-5 record), and he missed six of those. Six "three star" selections in 15 games doesn't look quite as bad.

johan f · Feb 2, 2023

Great work op!

We must take into consideration that some teams were more stacked than others and each individual’s importance varies. Lidstrom had a bunch to ”compete” with for Three Star selections. Plus some players (including Lidstrom) were/are important for outcome of the game even if not scoring the most.

reckoning · Feb 2, 2023

Interesting results. The main flaw is that defencemen (and defensive forwards) get shortchanged. The stars are usually whoever scored the most goals, or one of the goalies. I always disliked the cliche that still exists to day, where in an OT game the first star will often automatically go to whoever scored the OT goal regardless of everything else that happened in the game.

Patrick Roy's 1993 results are bizarre, considering how legendary that OT win run has become. 2nd star in Game 5 vs Quebec, 1st star in Game 4 vs L.A., and that's it. There were four other games where he only gave up one goal, you'd think he'd get recognized in at least a couple of them.

seventieslord · Feb 2, 2023

Threads like this one, right here, are why we spend so much time in this section. Excellent data.

seventieslord · Feb 2, 2023

John Leclair in 1993 is just baffling. He was only 8th on the team in points, was not a defensive specialist, and a lot of the players who outscored him either were defensive forwards, or defensemen (Damphousse, Muller, Desjardins, Keane).

It was the OT goals against the Kings, wasn't it? And a 2-goal game against the Isles? Was that all it took to lead that team?

Staniowski · Feb 2, 2023

seventieslord said:
John Leclair in 1993 is just baffling. He was only 8th on the team in points, was not a defensive specialist, and a lot of the players who outscored him either were defensive forwards, or defensemen (Damphousse, Muller, Desjardins, Keane).

It was the OT goals against the Kings, wasn't it? And a 2-goal game against the Isles? Was that all it took to lead that team?

LeClair - 3, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2 - 11
Muller - 1, 3, 2, 1 - 9
Damphousse - 3, 1, 1, 2 - 9
DiPietro - 1, 2, 3, 1 - 9
Desjardins - 3, 1, 1 - 7
Bellows - 2, 1, 2 - 7
Carbonneau - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 - 5
Roy - 2, 1 - 5

(I did this quickly by hand, so might be errors)

seventieslord · Feb 2, 2023

Staniowski said:
LeClair - 3, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2 - 11
Muller - 1, 3, 2, 1 - 9
Damphousse - 3, 1, 1, 2 - 9
DiPietro - 1, 2, 3, 1 - 9
Desjardins - 3, 1, 1 - 7
Bellows - 2, 1, 2 - 7
Carbonneau - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 - 5
Roy - 2, 1 - 5

(I did this quickly by hand, so might be errors)

interesting. John Leclair was not really the kind of guy who'd get a star in a game he didn't get a point in, so my assumption is he was given a star in 6 of the 7 games he scored a point in, including one in which he was 0-1-1.

I can see it was quite close between a few guys, though. Five different guys were all first star twice.

reckoning · Feb 2, 2023

Staniowski said:
LeClair - 3, 3, 1, 1, 3, 2 - 11
Muller - 1, 3, 2, 1 - 9
Damphousse - 3, 1, 1, 2 - 9
DiPietro - 1, 2, 3, 1 - 9
Desjardins - 3, 1, 1 - 7
Bellows - 2, 1, 2 - 7
Carbonneau - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 - 5
Roy - 2, 1 - 5

(I did this quickly by hand, so might be errors)

In addition to the 12 1st Star selections listed above, Brunet, Keane and Dionne also got a 1st star.

If anyone is wondering why Montreal only had 15 1st Stars when they won 16 games, the answer is Game 3 vs the Islanders. Despite Montreal winning the game 2-1 in OT, Islander players received the first two stars, with Guy Carbonneau (the OT goal scorer) getting the third.

Since the stars are usually selected by a media member from the home team, there may have been a bit of home team bias in effect.

seventieslord · Feb 2, 2023

Patrick Roy:

Game 3 vs. Quebec, 2-1 OT win facing going down 3-0 in the series, stopped 34 of 35... not one of the three stars
Game 4 vs. Quebec, 3-2 win, stopped 25 of 27... not one of the three stars
Game 6 vs. Quebec, 6-2 win, stopped 28 of 30, Keane had 3 points, Dipietro 4, but no one else had 2... not one of the three stars
Game 1 vs. NYI, 4-1 win, stopped 20 of 21, effectively a shutout ruined with a minute left, Leclair had 2 goals, Haller and Desjardins had 2 assists... not one of the three stars
Game 3 vs. NYI, 2-1 win, outshot 32-23, stopped 31 of 32, Brunet had 2 assists, 4 players had a point... not one of the three stars
Game 5 vs. NYI, 5-2 win, stopped 26 of 28, two guys had three points and three guys had two, so fair enough I guess... but still... not one of the three stars
Game 2 vs. LA, 3-2 OT win, stopped 22 of 24, Desjardins hat trick, still... not one of the three stars
Game 5 vs. LA, 4-1 win, stopped 18 of 19, Dipietro 2 goals, Odelein and Leclair 2 assists... not one of the three stars

not every single one of these games did he definitely have to be a star, but in most of them it's not hard to make a case and in a couple it's really strange that he was not named a star.

Michael Farkas · Feb 2, 2023

I think you really, especially as you get closer to present I feel, need to separate out home/road.

This could be one of those things like hits or giveaways or even shots on goal where you just want the road stats...

Three stars selections (playoffs, 1992-2022)

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