What is the average goals per game in the nhl

We're not quite back to the glory days of the Edmonton Oilers in the s or the incredible firewagon Montreal Canadiens a decade earlier. But the NHL has transformed itself from a tedious trap game that was contaminated by clutch-and-grab tendencies to an entertaining high-octane skill spectacle.

Get faster. You couldn't do that in the slower, clutch-and-grab game. Now the game is tailored to speed. It makes for a more interesting game and one that is more exciting to play in. Goals-per-game average has increased to 6. This was the highest goals-per-game average since 6.

A team has scored seven or more goals in a game 41 times this season. That total is the most at the midway point since 70 in Twenty-two players have scored 20 or more goals through the first games.

That's the most since 30 players hit the goal mark at the midpoint mark in Kucherov hit the point mark in his 43rd game on Tuesday; that's the quickest to 70 points since Jaromir Jagr turned the trick in his 38th game with the Pittsburgh Penguins in Thirteen players had scored 50 or more points by the midway mark last weekend and of this group only Sidney Crosby, Blake Wheeler and Patrick Kane are over the age of There has been a record-setting pace of comebacks, including occasions when a team overcame at least a one-goal deficit in the third period.

Nifty fact: Sidney Crosby now has 20 goals for the 12th time in his career, tying Mario Lemieux for most 20 goal seasons in franchise history.

All in all, you simply see more odd-man rushes, most teams are playing an aggressive style and you don't see teams playing the trap. You have to be ready or us goalies will be yanked. The jury is still out on how much the streamlined goaltender equipment has played a role in the offensive increase. The main reason for the upswing in offence has been rule changes that have eliminated the clutch-and-grab, interfering ways of the past.

Hitting is substantially down since the rugged Kings won their second Stanley Cup in three years in Heavy hockey used to mean playing physical. Now when a coach or player employs the buzz word Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock leads the league by using the word heavy in almost every gathering with reporters it means something else. It's having the puck, it's getting the puck back all the time, it's checking the puck, it's putting your work in front of your skill, it's being determined offensively, instead of coming down and having a rush and being one and done.

It's multiple-shot shifts, it's having some jam. It's no longer the top-six, bottom-six forward lines. Most teams have three skilled lines and the good clubs have a fourth line that can skate, cycle the puck and chip in its share of goals.

Most teams have replaced that physical, hard-hitting fifth defencemen with one who has offensive capabilities. The younger, faster and more skilled lineups have promoted a different style of game. The game features more back-checking that forces more turnovers. So not only are the defensive teams deprived from playing their best centre man, but the offensive almost certainly will. As a result, more offensive draw wins will lead to more shots on net.

Again, that's just my assumption in the shot upsurge. Perhaps an analysis of which shots have increased might paint a better. I'll keep that in mind for future blogs. The good thing is that these stats are readily available on the official NHL site.

Another topic that comes when looking up the NHL average shots per game, is the record for most shots in an NHL game by a team. The record for most shots in a game is 92 by the Montreal Maroons against the Detroit Red Wings back in March 24, This is actually before the NHL tracked the shots on net statistic, therefore making it the unofficial record.

Officially, the most shots on net was just set by the Tampa Bay Lightning against the Columbus Blue Jackets in August 11, - that number is 88 shots on goal. Although I was able to name 15 different shots NHL players use in a game see my blog post here , the NHL officially reports only 7 types. And they are the: wrist shot , slap shot , deflection , tip-in , wrap around , backhand and snap shot. As I've argued before, you can label every shot type under these categories, however you'd be doing a disservice in describing them all that way.

Let me give you 2 examples:. First, the Lacrosse goals by Andrei Svechnikov. Technically, these goals can be described as wrap arounds, but they were considerably more creative than that.

Wrap arounds don't make great "goal of the year" candidates, but the Lacrosse move certainly will. And second, the Sidney Crosby "baseball swat" goals. In this case, the NHL labels them as tip-ins, but we know that there was more to it than a simple redirection. In the end, the league can create an infinite amount of data points, but maybe the fine details are not worth making the stats more complicated. So what makes for a real effective shot an the NHL level?

Does speed matter all that much? We're going to look now at some shooting stats so we can better determine the dangerous aspects of shots in hockey.

As a note, the NHL doesn't provide analytics for every single event in a game. By the way, the official hardest shot was set by Zdeno Chara back in All-Star Game - clocked at Those are definitely considered very powerful shots. In fact, anything over mph is eye popping generally. But does it make you a better goal scorer? Ovechkin because of all the one-timer goals he scores on the powerplay and his potential to surpass Wayne Gretzky in career goals.

And Weber because of the brute power of his shot - So those are prime examples of players with great slappers. They're similar in number to both backhand and tip-in goals. However, the success rate of slap shots compared to all other shot types paints an unfavourable picture. Overall, slap shots are still effective at the NHL level, but they are only one of many tools a player should possess in their arsenal.

There are many angles by which you can approach this question. If you were to ask me, the wrist shot is the most dangerous simply because most goals are scored this way However, when you measure the goals scored against the total wrist shot attempts, it amounts to only an 8. For a goalie, the shot they have most trouble saving is the tip-in. Tip-ins had a success rate of That percentage is close to double that of wrist shots, however they much less frequently executed. I've included a graph on Goals Scored vs Success Rate below.

The frequency of snap shot goals is nothing close to what I'd expect. With all this talk about shots, have you ever wondered how many shots never make it to the net? I'm not speaking of shots that go wide, but rather shots that are blocked by courageous players.

It turns out that for every 2 successful shots on net, just about 1 shot will have been blocked. In addition, I haven't watched enough Devils games to comment on his overall defensive talent. However, the New York Islanders recently acquired him through trade February 26, for their eventual playoff run. He's definitely no scoring powerhouse, however his shot blocking ability does provide some of the sandpaper teams need to make it deep in the playoffs.

So, now that we've taken a deep look at shooting in the NHL, you're probably curious about how many goals were scored per game this year.