Why does the 2022 Stanley Cup knockout set a new record for the number of goals without a net?
NEW YORK – Two minutes left Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals and his team was one goal behind, Edmonton Oilers Goalie Mikko Koskinen Run quickly to your team’s bench. About a minute and a half later, Gabriel Landeskog send puck into that abandoned net. It won for Colorado Avalanche. But it also added an unexpected NHL record in the process Stanley Cup knockout round 2022.
In 76 games, 41 goals were scored against an empty net, setting a post-season NHL record. According to the league, the previous record was 36 goals conceded, set twice: in the 2017-18 season in 84 games, then appearing in the round of 24 after the 2019-20 season in 130 games.
Last season, there was one player who scored the most goals in an empty net: Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon with three. This season, spanning two rounds, has had four: Toronto Maple Leafs in front of Ilya Mikheyev, New York Ranger in front of Andrew Copp, Tampa Bay Lightning in front of Ondrej Palat and Oilers forward Evander Kane.
In total, 37 different players have at least one goal against an empty net this season.
What led to this record number of empty numbers? Here are four theories:
Score a goal, score a goal in an empty net
During the regular season, the NHL witnessed Highest average goals per game since 1995-96 (6.29 in both seasons). That increase in goals generates some staggering numbers: a 60-goal season for Auston Matthews, with four different players scoring at least 50 goals; the Florida Panthers scored 4.11 goals per game, the highest average for a team since 1995-96 Pittsburgh Penguins; and the final score on some nights looks more like MLB than NHL.
It also sets an NHL record for goals against an empty net in the regular season: 477 in 1,312 games, according to the NHL. That broke the previous record of 408 goals against an empty net set during 2018-19, and itself broke the record of 368 goals against an empty net in the 2015-16 season.
The scoring boom has moved into the post-season period. With 6.42 goals per game in 76 games, this is the highest goal since the 1992-93 season (6.84). And with the Oilers and Avalanche playing at least two more after the combined 18 goals in Games 1 and 2, who knows how high it can climb?
Goalkeepers are pulled earlier
Fun fact: the 13 most regular goalscoring seasons since 2007-08. Some of these are an extension of functionality: more games, more goals. That includes this season, because of the extension Seattle Kraken increased the total number of games played from 1,271 to 1,312 in a season uninterrupted by the pandemic. But some of it is due to the tactical changes the coaches have made when to pull a keeper.
There have been many documents proving that teams are pulling their goalkeepers earlier than ever. This trend was first noted in 2014-15, when teams scoring two or more goals began dragging their goalkeepers to just over two minutes on average in their first NHL game.
A big influence here is the analytics community, which has been screaming for years that pulling in a keeper earlier will greatly increase the chances of a team tying the game or falling into deficit. Like FiveThirtyEight reported in 2015a statistical model that shows that dragging the goalkeeper for the past 2 and a half minutes gives a team a 19-20% chance of finishing the game, but if a coach waits until the one minute mark, that chance decreases. down to 17%.
However, NHL coaches still claim that analytics are not the reason for their goalkeeping pull strategy.
“It’s not an analytical thing for me. They thought I should take him out on the sixth minute or something,” coach Carolina Rod Brind’Amour told ESPN. “It’s a feeling thing for me.”
New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant agreed.
“It’s guts for me. If it’s 6-5, I can wait a little longer. If it’s 1-0 or 2-1, I can go a little faster. That’s how I am. do,” he said.
Drag the keeper even earlier in the playoff game
With goalkeepers becoming much more aggressive in the regular season, how does that change for the knockouts?
According to Statists data, teams are even more aggressive in pulling their goalkeepers within the confines of a seven-game series. The average drag time of a goalkeeper in the regular season, with a team leading by one goal, is 1 minute, 4 seconds. Average drag time in the knockout stages for a one-goal lead: 1:19.
In the regular season, a team with a two-goal lead dragged their goalkeeper by an average of 1:44 over regulation. In the knockout stages, that number increases to 1:56 remaining in the game. Obviously, even in matches where teams need two goals to draw, they will still do it.
But as Brind’Amour said, there are times when a coach has to admit the game has gone too far.
“Definitely down two. Down three? It’s a little bit different,” he said.
There are fewer overtime games
There can’t be an empty goal without an empty net. One of the peculiarities of this post-season period is the lack of overtime games over two halves. Out of 76 matches, only 11 matches were awarded extra time (14%). This is down from 32% last season and down from 2019-20 (22%) and 2018-19 (20%). That was the lowest total since 2017-18, when there were only 10 extra time games (12%) and 36 goals in an empty net – at the time, an NHL record.
Until it broke down in this post-season period in which goals were pouring forward – whether there was a narrow keeper or not.
