10 Obscure 2017-2018 NHL Facts

The 101^st NHL season is in the books and it did not disappoint. The brand new expansion Vegas Golden Knights team broke just about every expansion record in the books leaving a near impossible chance of anyone breaking the trail that they blazed. The Nashville Predators proved that last year’s Stanley Cup finals were no fluke as they took the presidents trophy and surprise surprise Connor McDavid scored the most points. Colorado went from a franchise worst 48 points season to the in the playoffs (4^th highest jump in the NHL year over year). At least 5 fresh faces have been in the playoffs (who were not in the prior year) 11 of the last 13 seasons.

10 fun individual stats from the season…

1. Ryan O’Reilly set the all-time single season record for Faceoffs won with 1,274 (previously Rod Brind’Amour with 1,268 in 2005-2006)

2. The last time the Flyers didn’t have a player with 100+PIM (ignoring shortened seasons) was during the Bobby Clarke era (1970-1971)

3. Nikita Kucherov was the third Lightning to score at least 100 points in a season (Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier being the other two). Steven Stamkos still on deck (he scored 97 in 2012-2013).

4. Claude Giroux finished 2^nd in the NHL with 102 points, the first time a Flyer has eclipsed 100 points since Eric Lindros did it in the 1995-1996 season.

5. Alex Ovechkin fell 1 goal short of achieving an 8^th season with 50 goals. His current number of seasons (7) is behind only Mike Bossy (9) and Wayne Gretzky (9)

Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

6. Carter Hutton played in his second most games (32) in his NHL career posting a career best 2.09 GAA (best in NHL) AND save percentage .931.

7. William Karlsson went from 6 goals and 25 points during 2016-2017 season with the Columbus Blue Jackets to 43 goals and 78 points this season with the Las Vegas Golden Knights. That is a meager 3x increase in points and 6x increase in goals.

8. Eric Staal hit a fountain of youth scoring 76 points and tying the franchise record 42 goals (Marion Gaborik 2007-2008), the only previous time he scored 42+ goals was his 100 point season in 2005-2006 when they won the cup.

9. The top 9 in points did NOT include the following individuals: Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Brad Marchand, Patrick Kane, John Tavares and Jamie Benn. Last time we didn’t have at least THREE of these players in the top 9 was 2011-2012 season. Last time NONE of them were in the top 9 was 2003-2004.

10. Federik Andersen became the first goalie since 2010-2011 to have at least 2,000 saves in the regular season.

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Some of these will not repeat next year, some will and we will assuredly see a fresh cavalcade of faces making leaps in various stats.

Now, time for some PLAYOFF HOCKEY.