Marty Barry, most points in the 1930's

Who scored the most points in the NHL during the seaons 2000/01 through 09/10? Most good hockey fans would know it was Joe Thornton with 823 points in the decade. This would probably be the toughest decade to name the leader since the 1940's. The 90's were topped easily by Jaromir Jagr with 958 points, the 80's obviously belonged to Gretzky with a ridiculous 1842 points and the 70's were led by Phil Esposito with 1087. All are fairly easy to name, as are the leaders of the 50's and 60's.
Stan Mikita bests teammate Bobby Hull 827 to 786 during the 60's and Gordie Howe easily tops the 50's with 806 points.

This is where it starts getting difficult for even the most diehard hockey fans. The leading point scorer of the 1940's? Not Maurice Richard who even though he played only eight seasons of the decade, easily led in goals scored with 250.It was Chicago's Doug Bentley led the NHL in points during the 40's with 475 points. This brings us to the 1930's.

A few weeks ago in an entry about Alex Ovechkin, I noted that old timer Marty Barry had one of the greatest starts to a career ever. This was somewhat of a surprise to me, but really shouldn't have been as Barry was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1965. I received an email recently from Marty Barry's grand-daughter who had seen my blog, thanking me for shedding some light on her grandpa's scoring exploits. This prompted me to look a little deeper.

Low and behold, tied for most points in the 1930's are Marty Barry and Busher Jackson with 353 points. If you knew that Marty Barry led the NHL in scoring for an entire decade...give yourself a pat on the back. Marty Barry was consistent. He finished fourth in points twice, third once and second once in a six year period. He also missed only two games over ten consecutive years, won two Stanley Cups with Detroit, and a Lady Byng award.

Incidentally, the leader in points during the 1920's was Cy Denneny who's 243 just beats out Howie Morenz by two points.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,...
Read more

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un...
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal ...
Read more