Since Maurice Richard and the Rocket’s red glare got the first 50-goal NHL season for the Montreal Canadiens in 1944-45, it’s been a magical mark.
How magical?
Only 99 players, including Zach Hyman, have hit 50 or exceeded it in a single season.
Seems like a lot at first blush but we are talking 80 years here and thousands of players. There have been 209 50-goal seasons in all—Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Alex Ovechkin have each done it nine times, while Mario Lemieux, Guy Lafleur, and Marcel Dionne had six apiece.
But a good number of players have only done it once. It’s hard—very hard—to replicate 50.
As we said, that includes the current Oiler right-winger Hyman (54), also two other long-ago Edmontonians Wayne Babych (54 in 1980-81 for St. Louis and John Ogrodnick 55 for Detroit in 1984-85). One-time Oiler Adam Graves also had a once-in-a-lifetime 52 for the New York Rangers in their Cup year of 1993-94.
In large part, the one-timers are out-of-body experiences.
Some never came close again.
Vic Hadfield, Danny Grant, Ray Sheppard, Hakan Loob, Al Secord. Jonathan Cheechoo all had 50. All good, to very good, NHL players who did it once but never again, like Cheechoo, who had Jumbo Joe Thornton passing to him and went from 56 to 37 to 23 to 12 in San Jose.
Closer to home, Babych had 192 goals in 519 games before injuries (rotator cuff) derailed his career. His next best was 20 for the Rangers. Graves did get to 38 goals in 1998-99 on Broadway but had 22 in his first full season after the 52.
This brings us to arguably the NHL’s hardest-working player Hyman, who had the third most goals last season behind Auston Matthews (69) and Sam Reinhart (57) and right now, amazingly doesn’t have a goal, or a point through his first seven Oilers games with Pittsburgh Penguins in town Friday.
Was last season just one season for the ages for Hyman?
Like after being sent in alone by Connor McDavid Tuesday against Carolina, making a nice backhand move on former Leafs’ teammate Freddie Andersen, only to have Anderson save it with his pad. Now, in hindsight, the shot could have gone upstairs as Hyman might want back. But last season, Hyman casually slides that shot home, right?
Maybe we should put the brakes on with his no goals in 17 shots, though.
He’s started slowly for three years running. Last season he got 50 in the last 68 games after just four goals in the first dozen games before they made the coaching change from Jay Woodcroft to Kris Knoblauch.
How’s Hyman handling this year’s 0-for?
“It’s an 82-game season. It’s unfortunate that it’s happening at the beginning,” said Hyman. “I’ve gone through stretches like this before from game 40 to game 47 and nobody says anything because you’ve already banked some stats, goals.
“But it’s tough, especially when we’re losing by one goal. That’s what bothers me the most when I have an opportunity to score to help us win—usually, those go in for me and those would be wins for us. You get chances and eventually, they’ll go in. I’ve scored a bunch of goals in this league.”
Indeed, he has 90 over his last 166 Oiler games, and 203 in 587 games when you include his time with the Maple Leafs.
‘It’s not easy scoring 50’
His teammate Corey Perry, one of those players with one 50-goal year (exactly 50 in 2010-2011 when he won the Hart Trophy with Anaheim), has even more with 430 goals, but in 1,318 NHL games.
So when you get 50 are the expectations are you’ll do it again?
“Yes, they are. Is it realistic? Who knows? It’s not easy scoring 50, it’s way harder than you think. There’s pure goal-scorers in this league who are going to score 50 goals a couple of times,” said Perry. “But goalies are bigger, goalies are tougher, better, more athletic. To score 50 now is pretty impressive. It’s fun to see and fun for the league.”
“Zach had fun last year you could see it on his face,” said Perry.
Hyman’s all about hard labour, so there are no shortcuts for him. But the puck’s not going in as he continues to play with McDavid.
“You need puck-luck, some good bounces, some good linemates. You need everything to go well,” said Perry. “That year (playing with centre Ryan Getzlaf) everything did go in the net for me. You have to continue doing what you did (before), look back and remind yourself how the shots went in and how hard you were working.”
Scoring is a crazy thing early in the season, though.
Ross Colton in Colorado has six goals. Paul Cotter in New Jersey has five. Ryan McLeod, the ex-Oiler, has four goals in Buffalo. Who’d have thought that?
Hyman hasn’t scored yet. But neither has Carter Verhaeghe (eight games, 28 shots) in Florida. Or Brad Marchand (seven games, 17 shots) in Boston.
But, they didn’t get 54 last year, something Hyman is certainly aware of.
This ‘n that
- Off Thursday’s practice, it appears Travis Dermott is out and Troy Stecher will be Darnell Nurse’s second pairing D partner with Nurse back on left side…
- Ty Emberson is back in, playing with Brett Kulak. That may be the second PK defence pairing with Nurse and Mattias Ekholm the top blueline PK tandem…
- Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson were Leon Draisaitl’s linemates at practice with Jeff Skinner down on the third line with Adam Henrique and Connor Brown…
- Calvin Pickard was leading the stretches so he might get start in net for the Oilers against Pittsburgh. Last March, the Oilers blanked 4-0 but neither Pickard nor Stuart Skinner got credit individually for a shutout. Pickard got drilled by Bryan Rust at 17:05 of the middle period, and stayed in until 18:44 when there was a face-off and the NHL concussion spotter took him out to be checked. Skinner played 1:16 and faced no shots, with Pickard back in net for the third.
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