12/21/24
September 28, 2010
Average goals per game, by year: for every hockey league you've ever heard of. Surprisingly dramatic variation within and between leagues.
Not him, but Edmonton sure was the outlier for the league:
1981-82
Edmonton: 417 goals
Next 3 teams: 385, 360, 346
1982-83
Edmonton: 424 goals
Next 3 teams: 350, 343, 338
1983-84
Edmonton: 446 goals
Next 3 teams: 360, 357, 350
1984-85
Edmonton: 401 goals
Next 3 teams: 363, 358, 348
1985-86
Edmonton: 426 goals
Next 3 teams: 354, 351, 335
posted by grum@work at 11:26 AM on September 28, 2010
In World War 2, they obviously drafted more goalies than shooters. It does cast a light onto Rocket's 1944 50 in 50, handwavey "the whole league was diluted" stuff aside, the war years saw the goals per game almost double.
meanwhile, look at the QMJHL - most of the 70s and 80s it was over 10 goals per game.
posted by rumple at 12:11 PM on September 28, 2010
meanwhile, look at the QMJHL - most of the 70s and 80s it was over 10 goals per game.
Patrick Roy - Granby Bisons
1982-83 - 6.26 GAA
1983-84 - 4.44 GAA
1984-85 - 5.55 GAA
Mario Lemieux - Laval Voisins
1981-82 - 64GP 30G 66A (age 16)
1982-83 - 66GP 84G 100A (age 17)
1983-84 - 70GP 133G 149A (age 18)
Yeah, it was a crazy league for a while.
posted by grum@work at 01:02 PM on September 28, 2010
70GP 133G 149A
You've got some typos there, right? Can't be.
posted by yerfatma at 02:17 PM on September 28, 2010
Nope, Mario was a bit of a phenom, though yes lucky to play in an offence-happy junior league. 282 points in 70 games.
posted by rumple at 04:28 PM on September 28, 2010
Four points a game, I don't care what level, he comes on my home ice and he's getting provoked until he fights back and gets a game misconduct!
posted by billsaysthis at 07:43 PM on September 28, 2010
I have always been curious about the cultural differences in how we play hockey in the WHL and QMJHL. The old rule of thumb was that if you wanted defence, you drafted from the WHL and if you wanted goaltending, you went to the QMJHL. I read somewhere years ago that Patrick Roy would see 80 pucks a lot of nights, which may have explained why he was so good as a rookie, he was getting three times the more work per game than goalies in the WHL.
posted by jc at 11:16 AM on October 01, 2010
The fact that somebody bothers to collect (and report) this kind of statistical data always amazes me.
The next step is to do some kind of correlation analysis though, no? Goalie equipment? Rule changes? etc.
I do think that the range of around 8 goals per game is a pretty exciting brand of hockey though. No surprise that the early '80s saw the peak for the NHL. They don't call him the Great One for nuthin' (not that he single-handedly bolstered the league average, or maybe he did?)