Tim Heitman-Imagn Images
It’s fair to say that the Edmonton Oilers have been a disappointment through the first quarter of the NHL season. Not as big as they were last season, but still.
It’s also fair to say that their lack of success has nothing to do with the performance of their two best players. Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, in that order, have been terrific. In fact, when it comes to producing offense at crucial times of the game, there is nobody better in the NHL at it than Draisaitl.
How do we know this? Well, because of my Situational Scoring statistic that charts goals by importance.
You know how they say that it doesn’t matter how, but how many? Well, with Situational Scoring, it doesn’t matter how many.
As the name suggests, it measures situational scoring, specifically which players produce offense at the most crucial times in the game.
That’s why a guy like Josh Norris of the Ottawa Senators can be tied for 102nd in the actual scoring race but is 20th in Situational Scoring. Or defending Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon can be third in NHL scoring but not crack the top 25 in this department.
As always, there are a couple of things to note, the most important being that goals are weighted more heavily than assists, with goals worth one point and assists worth half a point.
In this system, goals can be worth more than one point, and assists worth more than a half a point. For example, the first goal of a game is automatically worth two points, one for being the first goal of the game and one for putting that player’s team ahead in a game. An overtime goal is worth three: one for putting the team ahead, one for being the game-winner and one for the overtime goal. If that is the only goal in a 1-0 game, it’s worth four.
It can all be a little confusing, so here’s a glossary:
FIRST: When a player scores the first goal of the game.
AHEAD: Any goal that puts a team ahead at any point in the game, including overtime.
TIED: Any goal that pulls a team into a tie at any point in the game.
COMEBACK: A goal that is scored when a team is trailing by two goals or more and is part of a series of goals that eventually ties the game, regardless of the ultimate outcome of the game.
WINNER: A game-winning goal, but not by the NHL’s definition. The game-winner in this category is the goal that puts a team ahead in a game to stay. So in other words, you could have a 7-6 game and maybe the first goal of the game was the game-winner.
OT: Overtime goal.
SO: Only shootout game-winning goals are counted in this category.
NHL: Where the player stands in the actual NHL scoring race.
Here’s the top 25 through the first quarter of the season:
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(Don’t see the table? Click here.)
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