Did You Know?
By Jason Gregor
1 year agoThe Edmonton Oilers have played 51 games in Dallas since the Stars relocated from Minnesota at the start of the 1993-94 season. Last night’s victory was only their 11th win in 51 visits to the Big D. They are now 11-36-2-2 all-time. Last night was the first time in franchise history the Oilers have scored six goals in Dallas. It was an impressive win, and a rare one in Dallas, and it got me thinking about other stats and facts we might not know.
1. Alex Ovechkin is about to do something no other player in NHL history will ever do. This past Monday Ovechkin recorded his 646th assist which moved past Bobby Orr into 70th place in career assists. He passed the legendary Orr and with two more goals, he will pass Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe, on the all-time goal list. No player in NHL history is ever going to pass Orr and Howe in the same year. Amazing.
2. With a goal and an assist in the third period last night Roman Josi passed David Legwand to become the Nashville Predators’ all-time points leader with 567 points in 791 games. He joins Ray Bourque as the only defencemen to lead an active franchise in points. Bourque scored 1,506 points in 1,511 games for the Boston Bruins.
Other active players who lead their franchise in scoring include Steven Stamkos with Tampa Bay, Blake Wheeler with Winnipeg, Jonathon Marchessault in Vegas and Jared McCann in Seattle.
3. The worst regular season PK% belongs to the 1980 Los Angeles Kings at 68.2%. The 2022-23 Vancouver Canucks PK currently sits at 67%.
4. Warren Foegele has three goals in 59 minutes of 5×5 TOI playing with Leon Draisaitl. It is a small sample size, but Foegele was playing very well before he got injured, with three goals in six games, and now that he’s back in the lineup, I’d keep him with Draisaitl. Those two with Yamamoto makes a line I’d stick with and see how they do. Foegele has done well burying his chances with Draisaitl.
5. Tage Thompson has 25 goals and 47 points in his last 25 games. Connor McDavid has 20-27-47. To match McDavid in points over a 25-game stretch is impressive, not to mention averaging one goal per game.
6. Through October and November the Oilers were 27th in first period goals with 14. But in December they lead the NHL with 13 goals in the first frame. Their starts have been much better recently.
7. Edmonton has the most second period goals with 47. The problem is they’ve allowed the fifth most with 48. Edmonton has been outscored 32-27 in the first (but are 13-9 in December) and been outscored 48-47 in the second, but they have outscored teams 48-35 in the third. Edmonton is tied for the most third period goals with Buffalo. They are 16th in goals allowed in the third.
They were essentially the same in the second and third periods in Oct/Nov as they were in December, but their first period improvement is a positive sign. They’d love to reduce their goals against overall, but mainly in the second period.
8. Teams have scored 892 goals in the first period, 1127 in the second, and 1167 in the third. However, there have been 175 empty net goals, so it is 992 goals with a goalie between the pipes. The second periods have always had more goals, and the theory is that much of that is due to the long change. I wonder if the NHL would ever consider making the first and third periods the long change. I’d love to see them experiment with it in the American Hockey League.
9. The race in the Pacific Division is down to five teams.
Let’s look at the remaining schedule. Did you know Seattle has only had one set of BTB this season and it was their first two games of the year? Edmonton has fared the best in the second half of BTB going 3-1. Seattle and Calgary each have seven remaining, while the Oilers have six, LA five, and Vegas four. Vegas only has six BTBs all season.
| TEAM | BTB | BTB GRM |
| SEA | 1 (1-0) | 7 |
| LVK | 2 (1-1) | 4 |
| CGY | 3 (0-2-1) | 7 |
| LA | 4 (1-1-2) | 5 |
| EDM | 4 (3-1) | 6 |
Here is how they have faced head-to-head against each other, as well as their record against the bottom three PAC teams.
| TEAM | CGY | EDM | LA | LVK | SEA | REST |
| CGY | NA | 1-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 2-0-1 |
| EDM | 1-1 | NA | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 |
| LA | 0-1 | 1-0 | NA | 0-1 | 0-1-2 | 3-1 |
| LVK | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | NA | 1-1 | 3-2 |
| SEA | 1-0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 1-1 | NA | 2-1-1 |
Edmonton has 20 division games remaining, Calgary has 18 while LA, Vegas, and Seattle each have 16. Here is a breakdown of who they play.
| TEAM | CGY | EDM | LA | LVK | SEA | REST |
| CGY | NA | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| EDM | 1 | NA | 3 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
| LA | 3 | 3 | NA | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| LVK | 3 | 3 | 3 | NA | 2 | 5 |
| SEA | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | NA | 7 |
Calgary’s next five games are against Pacific opponents. Edmonton plays Vancouver, Anaheim and San Jose nine times. The Oilers and Kraken play three times between December 30th and January 17th. The Oilers should beat them on the 17th. Seattle starts a seven-game road trip in Edmonton on January 3rd, then they come home for one game v. Tampa on the 16th, then play the next night in Edmonton — essentially a nine-game road trip with the final game the second half of a back-to-back.
10. Last season some pointed to Connor McDavid’s possession numbers with Jesse Puljujarvi as the reason Puljujarvi should play on his line. That hasn’t been the case this year. Here are the four most common forward linemates McDavid has played with and the numbers with them and without.
| McDavid with | TOI With | TOI Away | CF% With | 97 CF% w/0 | CF% w/o 97 | FF% With | 97 FF% w/0 | FF% w/o 97 | SF% With | 97 SF% w/0 | SF% w/o 97 |
| Hyman | 322:52 | 209:34 | 52.78 | 49.87 | 46.7 | 51.58 | 50 | 46.24 | 53.63 | 50 | 46.39 |
| Draisaitl | 255:27 | 294:21 | 51.61 | 51.22 | 43.8 | 50.77 | 50.53 | 45.26 | 51.97 | 51.61 | 46.56 |
| Nugent-Hopkins | 129:45 | 420:03 | 55.11 | 50.18 | 46.57 | 54.46 | 49.38 | 47.65 | 53.8 | 51.08 | 48.26 |
| Puljujarvi | 120:21 | 429:27 | 50 | 51.74 | 52.7 | 49.37 | 50.92 | 52.29 | 47.66 | 52.63 | 49.62 |
McDavid’s numbers with Puljujarvi are all worse than when they are apart. And the same goes for Puljujarvi.
| McDavid with | GF | GA | GF% With | 97 GF% w/0 | GF% w/o 97 | xGF% With | 97 XGF% w/0 | XGF% w/o 97 | SCF% With | 97 SCF% w/0 | SCF% w/o 97 |
| Hyman | 24 | 16 | 60 | 20 | 25 | 55.16 | 53.5 | 46.11 | 55.21 | 52.55 | 45.6 |
| Draisaitl | 15 | 13 | 53.57 | 45.83 | 41.18 | 56.27 | 52.32 | 44.83 | 56.41 | 51.69 | 43.75 |
| RNH | 8 | 7 | 53.33 | 48.65 | 45.16 | 56.07 | 53.55 | 46.13 | 57.43 | 52.67 | 43.77 |
| Puljujarvi | 2 | 6 | 25 | 54.55 | 36.36 | 44.8 | 55.97 | 53.7 | 50.86 | 54.56 | 53.06 |
If you pushed for Puljujarvi to play with McDavid last year because of possession numbers, then I suspect you will want them not together this year. Both have better numbers playing away from one another.
MONTH OF GIVING
Thanks to Chris and Brian for their great bids yesterday.
Day 16: Package #1: Golf, Dinner and Hockey.
- Four rounds of golf at The Royal Mayfair Golf Golf Course and $200 Food and beverage credit.
- Four Loge Ledge seats (with parking pass) for either the Oilers/Jets game on New Year’s Eve, or Oilers/Kraken game on January 17th.
You can bid by listening to TSN 1260 today. You can text the show between 2-6 p.m. at 101260 and include your name and donation.All the proceeds will go towards the Christmas Bureau.
🎁 Package #2: $2500 Gift Card from Kingma Lumber Masters
- They do custom furniture and sell hardwood slabs and lumber and all kinds of wood working supplies. You can pick out which custom-made table package you want.
- They also make sliding doors, indoor or outdoor tables and more.
- Pair of seats for Oilers/Jets on New Year’s Eve. Row 17, section 115. Oilers attack twice.
You can bid by listening to TSN 1260 today. You can text the show between 2-6 p.m. at 101260 and include your name and donation. Thanks in advance. All the proceeds will go towards the Christmas Bureau.
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