Every month we will take a look around the NHL at some stunning (or even bizarre) numbers that jump out at us.
This month we take a look at the return of the 100-point scorer,the Flyers’ revolving door of goalies, and some impressive individual performances around the NHL, including from a pair of standout rookies.
The 100-point scorer might be back
Did not think this was ever going to happen. Not with the way the game was trending for so long.
Entering play on Friday there are currently 13 players in the NHL that are on pace for more than 100 points this season (and that does not include players like Patrice Bergeron and Auston Matthews who are on a 100-point pace over 82 games but have missed too much time due to injury to actually threaten the 100-point mark) and a few others on pace for 98 or 99 points and could make a run at it.
Let’s think about those numbers for a second.
- During the 2017-18 season there were only three 100-point scorers in the NHL (Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, and Claude Giroux), and at the halfway point there were only four player on a pace to reach it.
- In the seven years prior to last season there were only five 100-point scorers in the NHL, and never more than one in a single season.
- The last time the NHL had more than 10 100-point scorers in a single season was 1995-96. The last time there were 13 was the 1992-93 season when more than 20 players topped it.
There was an eight or nine year stretch where even reaching 90 points seemed to be impossible, given the way the games were being officiated, the quality of the goaltending, and the way the league had become such a structured defensive game. Just like it wasn’t one specific thing that resulted in the decline in scoring, it hasn’t been just one specific thing that’s resulted in the reversal. Goalie equipment has gotten smaller, power plays are up a little bit, three-on-three overtime has added some goals, and, quite frankly, there has been a pretty good influx of young superstar talent to enter the league that has been given a bit more freedom to create.
The Flyers’ revolving door of goalies
After claiming Mike McKenna on waivers the Philadelphia Flyers could be in a position to use a seventh goalie this season. The season is just now half over. Only two teams in the league this season have had to use more than three different goalies, while none have had to use more than four. The Flyers are already at six and have a very real chance of using seven.
What is most amazing about this number is that all six goalies have appeared in at least two games, and five of them have appeared in at least five.
[Related: Flyers welcome Mike McKenna to the goalie carousel]
An historically great offense in Tampa Bay
At the halfway point the Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 4.17 goals per game, an incredible number in any era.
In the history of the league only 70 teams have scored more goals than Tampa Bay’s 171 through the first 41 games of a season, and the overwhelming majority of those teams played in the firewagon days of the 1980s when goalies were awful and power plays were plentiful.
Since 1990, only nine teams have topped that mark through 41 games, and all but one of those teams played between 1990 and 1993 (the 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins are the lone exception) just before the start of the dead puck era.
The Lightning are truly scoring goals like a team from a different era.
The second-highest scoring team in the league, the Toronto Maple Leafs, is at 3.67, an incredible 0.50 goals per game behind the Lightning. The gap between Tampa Bay and Toronto (which is also an obscenely good and deep offensive team), is the same as the gap between Toronto and the 11th highest scoring team in the league, the Ottawa Senators.
They are also scoring on 30.5 percent of their power plays. Only three teams in league history have ever finished a full season higher than 30 percent -- the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens, the 1977-78 New York Islanders, and the 1978-79 New York Islanders.
Elias Lindholm has already exceeded anything he has ever done in the NHL
I admit, I hated the Dougie Hamilton trade for the Calgary Flames because they were dealing an elite defender for a package of players that ... did not seem elite.
It has gone better for the Flames than I -- or really anyone -- could have expected because one of the key players in that deal, Elias Lindholm, is having an absolutely magnificent season.
Entering play on Friday he has already scored 20 goals, recorded 28 assists, and totaled 48 points in 42 games.
Before this season his previous career highs in those respective categories were 17, 34 (he will almost certainly pass that one soon), and 45.
Granted, a lot of this production (especially as it relates to the goals) is tied to a 19.8 shooting percentage that will only regress, but it has still been a huge surprise season for the Flames.
Morgan Rielly chasing history
With 44 points in his first 40 games, the Toronto Maple Leafs defender is on pace for 90 points this season. Only 10 different defenders in league history have topped that mark, and none have done it Ray Bourque during the 1993-94 season.
The list of defenders to do it: Paul Coffey (seven times), Bobby Orr (six times), Ray Bourque (four times), Denis Potvin (three times), Al MacInnis (two times), Phil Housley (one time), Brian Leetch (one time), Gary Suter (one time).
Elias Pettersson’s elite company
The Vancouver Canucks rookie was injured again on Thursday night, and that is terrible news for his team and the league. He has been one of the the most explosive rookies to enter the league in quite some time.
Since the start of the 1987-88 season only three rookies have ever scored more than Pettersson’s 22 goals in the first 38 games of their career.
Teemu Selanne with 30 goals in 1992-93, Eric Lindros with 27 goals in 1992-93, and Alex Ovechkin with 24 goals in 2005-06.
[Related: Canucks’ Pettersson leaves game with ugly looking leg injury]
Speaking of great rookie performances
Rasmus Dahlin, the No. 1 overall pick of the Buffalo Sabres, has been having a noteworthy rookie season of his own.
The 18-year-old has already tallied 20 points in his first 41 games. Going as far back as 1987 only one other rookie defenseman at the age of 18 had more points than that (Aaron Ekblad with 24 points for the Florida Panthers during the 2014-15 season). Nobody else has recorded more than 15 during that stretch.
Playmaker Blake Wheeler
We touched on Blake Wheeler’s stat line a month ago and it hasn’t really changed.
In 39 games this season he has recorded 44 assists for the Jets.
He has only scored six goals.
Over the past 35 years no player has recorded at least 44 assists through the first half of the season and scored fewer goals.
(Data in this post via the Hockey-Reference database)
MORE: Your 2018-19 NHL on NBC TV schedule
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.
