Scoring is up... way up! Good or bad?

[brelic]

Noticed a fun little Eklund post this morning talking about the trend towards higher scoring in the NHL. 

https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eklund/Back-to-the-80s-Liking-all-this-scoring-My-Ek-streme-Stat-Thurs-Buzz/1/95242

 

Quote

 

In the mid 80s, while I was in high school trying to make it as a goalie, the NHL peaked as far as scoring goes...

 

In 1985-86 how many players (with at least 60 games played) averaged over a point per game? 45 
The top player was Wayne Gretzky at 2.69 point per game in 80 games (and it would have been over 3 were there no 2 line pass!)

 

30 years later.... ( I am so old.)

 

In 2015-16 how many players (with at least 60 games played) averaged over 1 point-per-game? 6
The top player was Patrick Kane at 1.29 points-per-game

 

In 2016-17 how many players (with at least 60 games played) averaged over 1 point-per-game? 8
The top player was Connor McDavid at 1.22 points-per-game

 

In 2017-18 how many players (with at least 60 games played) averaged over 1 point-per-game? 22
The top player was Connor McDavid at 1.32 points-per-game

 

Now this year....

 

Ok it's crazy early... but

 

In 2017-18 how many players (at least 3 games played) are averaging over 1 point-per-game? 83 

And...

 

In 2017-18 how many players (at least 3 games played) are averaging overTWO points-per-game? 18

 

 

So you can see we're trending upwards, with last year yielding HALF the PPG scorers as in the Gretzky-era wide-open hockey. 

 

I love it. I remember the days of being down 2, 3 goals and never feeling it was over. The past decade+ has really felt like the opposite. If you go down 1, sometimes you can just tell by the way the game is on the ice that there's no way your team is scoring. It's too contained, too mechanical, too cluttered.

 

I wonder if we'll see more than 22 PPG players this year. Hell, Matthews already has 9 goals in 5 games. I'm gonna predict he hits 70.

 

 

[Puck_Pun]

The problem with high scoring is close games are less common, and that's less exciting. Games going to the last moments are great to watch.

 

I can see why the NHL would like more goals, though- easier to create a highlight reel for the news (essentially advertising the game) and more opportunities to have commercial breaks which makes the networks happy.

[The Geek on Skates]

I'm all for it!  When I lived up north, around 2006, hockey was all this clutch'n'grab garbage, 1-0 games like soccer, and there was nothing fun to watch but the fights!  Of course then we had to move to the south, where hockey dropped off the face of the planet... long story short, 12 years later, and I moved to a town with a team.  All of a sudden, hockey exists!  And it's good again!  They still hit, and still fight, but there's an actual game to it again!  None of this "aw, man, they scored!  Guess I'll see what's on Netflix..."