There Were 316 Goals Scored In The First Week Of The NHL This Season
It’s kind of crazy to think that it was just last Wednesday that the 2016-17 NHL season started. Since that time, 2 rookies are in a 4-way tie for the league lead in goals with 4. 18 rookies in total of scored their first career NHL goal (officially beginning their respective eras). There hasn’t been a single game that there’s been less than 3 goals scored. And in total, from Wednesday October 12 through Wednesday October 19, there have been 316 goals scored. I don’t know how you want to qualify a week. If you want Wednesday to Tuesday. Or Wednesday through the next Wednesday. Either way, 50 games have been played so far this NHL season and 316 goals have been scored in those 50 games.
How does that stack up to last season? Well through 50 games last year, there were only 262 goals scored. Even that equals out to Vegas’ 5 goals per game which seems like plenty. But yeah. 316 goals in 50 games. That is outrageous. There have been 5 games so far this season that 11 goals were scored. And it’s not like this is really anything new. You’re always going to see more goals being scored at the beginning of the season before teams have a chance to really settle in themselves, and before they’re able to get a good read on every other team in the league. But 6.32 goals per game is insane. And just think about if the league made every minor penalty a 2-minute major. Or if they made the net slightly bigger. Or if they made the ice surface a little wider to open up more space. The opening week of this season will definitely silence the “make the nets bigger and the goalies smaller” crowd for a while but still, think about how many goals per night we’d see if the league actually went through with it.
And maybe goaltending to the NHL is what quarterbacks are to the NFL right now. Maybe there just aren’t enough elite level goalies in the league at the moment. I don’t know. If I was an actual nerd maybe I would look up how many shots were taken in the first 50 games this year compared to how many shots there were last season. And then maybe I’d look into the shot selections from this year compared to last year. But I’m not a nerd so I’m just going to blanket statement that offensive talent is up and goaltending is down this year. And that’s a beautiful thing if you’re like me and get a hard-on for highlights.
Now here are my Top 5 Goals of the NHL season so far.
5) PK Subban’s 1st goal as a Predator (just because of the circumstances and the celly was electric)
4) Connor McDavid murders Brian Elliott on the penalty shot.
3) Josh Bailey’s Overtime Game Winner. Vroom Vroom.
2) I still don’t understand this Steven Stamkos snipe to send the Bolts to overtime.
1. Auston Matthews puts a Norris trophy winner and the entire Ottawa Senators organization in his back pocket.