Nitzy's Hockey Den

Oct. 31, 1981...hockey was just a little bit different than it is today. Below are the standings from exactly 30 years ago today. To illustrate the amazing difference in goal scoring, the 1981 Colorado Rockies with 30 goals in 11 games would rank 10th in scoring today. Today's leaders, Philadelphia and their 41 goals would have ranked 15th out of 21 teams in 1981. On the other end of the spectrum, Montreal's league best 28 goals allowed in 11 games would be merely tied for 13th today. On the individual front Phil Kessel, today's NHL leader with 18 points would have been 15th overall on the same date in 1981, one point behind Oilers defenceman Risto Siltanen and one ahead of St.Louis Blue Mike Zuke. Kessel's league best 10 goals would be only 9th in 1981. In all honestly, comparing today's scoring to that from 30 years ago is more of a fun thing. There really is no comparison as I've shown. In 1981/82 there was just over an average of 8.00 goals scored per game...

The 17 total goals scored in the Winnipeg/Philadelphia game is the highest scoring NHL game in over 15 years. The 17 goals are the most by two teams since Jan. 13, 1996 when the San Jose Sharks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 10-8. Interestingly, Jaromir Jagr played in both of these games and had only one point in each. No player scored more than four points in either of these high-scoring affairs. Mario Lemieux and Ray Sheppard had 4 each in '96 , Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen also had 4 points each. Also, From New York Islanders home game statistician Eric Hornick, the five games in which a goaltender played in ONLY a shoot-out of a game. 10/27/2011 in Pittsburgh, Rick DiPietro became the 5th goalie to appear only in a shootout when he replaced Evgeni Nabakov. The others: 10/22/2008 Toronto v Anaheim. Curtis Joseph replaced Vesa Toskala for shootout for Toronto. 10/26/2006 Atlanta v Philadelphia. Kari Lehtonen replaced Johan Hedberg for Atlanta. 3/7/2006 Edmonton v Dallas. Mark Mo...

I don't want to pile on Roberto Luongo. People who are calling for his head are being reactionary and counter-productive. This season is still in the very early stages and most people are aware that Luongo is a notorious slow starter. However, given the fact that I live in Vancouver, I hear alot of this nonsense and honestly it's interesting to follow. The one thing I have noticed is the manner in which Luongo has been failing, dating back to last year's playoffs. It seems to me that when he loses, he breaks down in spectacular Hindenburg-ian fashion. I figured I'd have a look at the numbers. Now, it may be a relatively small sample size, but I wanted to compare Luongo's numbers in games which he won to games which he lost and how those compare to the league averages. 2011/12 NHL Average In Losses, teams had an GAA of 3.68 and Save Pct of .877 In Wins, teams had an GAA of 1.77 and Save Pct of .942 These numbers are obvious and predictable. So, how did Roberto Luongo...

Last week, when looking at historical comparisons for Phil Kessel's hot start, I learned of the 1944/45 season of Maple Leaf, Dave 'Sweeney' Schriner. Kessel's 8 goals through 7 games was bested only by Schriner's 9 goals in the first 7 games of 1944. That season of course was the year of the NHL's first 50 goal season by Maurice Richard. Perhaps, if not for an injury that cost him almost half the season, Sweeney Schriner may have joined Richard as the first 50 goal scorer. The 33 year-old Schriner would be shutout in his 8th game but notched 2 goals on Nov 8, 1944 in his 9th match of the season, the game in which he would be injured. Schriner was quoted afterwards;"That's one time the coach can't say I wasn't backchecking." The Toronto Star described the injury; "Schriner says he was cruising in home waters looking for a stray puck when he saw Mush March pounce and start for (goaltender) McCool with dirt in his eye. He swung along wi...

Toronto's Special Teams 2011/12: Power Play 16.00%, PK 77.27% 2010/11: Power Play 15.95%, PK 77.45% Toronto's Strength (or weakness) of Schedule so far this season is rated as the easiest by far at Minus 0.82, Zero is average and Los Angeles has had the most difficult schedule at +0.90 Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul have scored 11 of Toronto's 16 goals. The Kessel, Lupul and Bozak line have counted 23 of the team's 45 scoring points. Kessel is the first Leaf to tally 7 goals over the first 5 games of a season since Sweeney Schriner in 1944 (see below). 1944/45 Season Although not the last time Toronto had an undefeated five game start, it's interesting to look back into the past at another dominating start and how it panned out over the season. After five wins, the Leafs had scored 30 goals and surrendered 12 and sat two points up on Montreal. Toronto also had the top three point scorers in the entire line of Sweeney Schriner (13 points), Gus Bodnar (13 points) an...

Thanks to Leaf play-by-play man Joe Bowen, last night I learned that Phil Kessel is only the third Maple Leaf in history to score 5 goals in the first 3 games of the season. In game 4 he added a 6th goal to tie a Leaf record to start a season. The two players that previously scored 5 in the first 3 were Darryl Sittler and Wendel Clark (twice). Darryl Sittler 1978 Game 1: 2G Game 2: 3G-4A Game 3: 0 Game 4: 1G-1A On the strength of a 7 point game, Sittler had 6 goals and 5 assists through the first 4 games in 1978/79. He would slow down to 1 goal and 2 assists over the next 6 games finishing October 1978 with a scoring line of: 10-7-7-14. Wendel Clark 1986 Game 1: 1G Game 2: 4G Game 3: 0 Game 4: 0 After 5 tallies in his first two matches. Clark notched 2 goals, 2 assists in his next 6. His October scoring ended up: 9-7-2-9 Wendel Clark 1991 Game 1: 2G-1A Game 2: 3G-2A Game 3: 1A Clark had a Gretzky-esque start to 1991/92 with 6 goals and 9 points in the first three games. Unfortunately ...

I read yesterday how the new Winnipeg Jets announcers and media will have to be careful when referring to franchise 'firsts'. The next Jets hat-trick will be neither the first in Jets history or in franchise history. The confusion will stem from the fact that there already has been a Winnipeg Jets, although an entirely different franchise and the defunct Atlanta Thrashers records will carry on to the current Winnipeg Jets. Unless Mark Scheifele ends up being the second coming of Dale Hawerchuk, the new Jets record book will remain dominated by ex-Thrashers. Ilya Kovalchuk's 328 franchise goals and 615 points should be number one for years to come. The likes of Marian Hossa, Slava Kozlov and Kari Lehtonen will be part of the Jets records for a while still. In fact the previous Atlanta franchise, the Flames, have a record book peppered lightly with Atlanta players from before the franchise shift. In addition to the new Jets, Atlanta hockey is still represented in the Calgary...

Researching Toronto's history of opening night shutouts, I found that the Leafs actually started the 1930/31 season with FIVE consecutive shutouts. This was the last year in the Mutual Street Arena for Toronto before moving the next season to Maple Leaf Gardens. Somewhat strange about the five shutouts is the fact that Toronto alternated goaltenders Lorne Chabot (pictured below) and Benny Grant (above), each taking turns starting games. This was fairly rare in an era when the majority of teams used one goalie for the entire year. Following are the summaries from the Canadian Press of each of the five games: Nov.13, 1930 0-0 vs. New York Americans Lorne Chabot vs. Roy Worters "The game, played before about 8,000 spectators, was a typical early season exhibition of the popular winter pastime. Neither team showed real form, and as a result the game was somewhat dull. In addition to this the unseasonably warm weather and ultra strict officiating detracted from the game's attra...

Leaf goalie James Reimer shutout Montreal in the opener of the 2010/11 season and perhaps surprisingly it's only the fourth time in over 70 years that it's happened. In the almost 100 year history of the Toronto franchise, they've recorded a season opening shutout on only 7 occaisons. The other six times were as follows: Oct. 10, 2002 Ed Belfour Toronto 6 at Pittsburgh 0 Belfour stopped 33 Penguin shots in his Toronto debut. Leafs were led by the line of Sundin (2G, 2A), Mogilny (2G, 1A) and Tucker (3A). Oct.7, 2000 Curtis Joseph Montreal 0 @ Toronto 2 On goals by Jonas Hoglund and Sergei Berezin, Toronto beats the Habs despite being outshot 26-18. Oct.11, 1984 Allan Bester Toronto 1 @ Minnesota 0 Bester stopped 23 shots, out-duelled Don Beaupre in a 1-0 overtime victory. Miroslav Frycer tallied the winner two minutes into extra time. Nov.4, 1939 Turk Broda Boston 0 @ Toronto 5 Two goals from Syl Apps and solos from Gord Drillon, Pete Langelle and Bob Davidson. Nov.13, 193...

Most hockey fans and poolies are rightly concerned with Sidney Crosby and how close he is to a return. Overlooked perhaps is the return of Evgeni Malkin. He is healthy and coming back with a vengence. To say Malkin is a sleeper may be a stretch, TSN's Bob McKenzie is even predicting him to win the ArtRoss. If you can get him at 10th overall in your draft (like I did) you should be estatic. Prediction for Malkin 95 points. Tomas Fleischmann is another player coming off an injury and he's also on a new team. He steps into a prominent role as second line centre behind Stephen Weiss in Florida and should produce accordingly. Fleischmann is 27 years old and primed for a breakout. Two seasons ago he registered 51 points with the Capitals and after being traded to Colorado he put up 21 points in 22 games. Prediction for Fleischmann 67 points Another light sleeper is Brent Burns who had a career high 46 points last year. Being traded to San Jose and stepping into a powerplay with Thorn...