Ice Hockey
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This year's NHL season is proving to be a true spectacle. After years in which the exceptional performance of goalkeepers have made it master, the trend seems to have reversed, with the attackers back to being the real rulers of the game.
Thursday 13 December 2018 5 minutes reading time
The League has for years pursued the goal of making the NHL more spectacular by encouraging the number of goals scored per game, drastically dropped from the average of 7.5 goals per game of the '80s and' 90s, only 5.5 in the last 20 years.
The drastic reduction in the number of achievements in recent decades is certainly not due to a lower quality of the attackers, but rather to the greater speed of the game, the tactical innovations studied by the coaches and, above all, the growth, in every sense, of goalkeepers. The goalie of today, in addition to being technically and athletically much higher than those who preceded them, have more extensive and opaque protections, thus making the task of the movement players more difficult.
The NHL, in an attempt to exhume a more spectacular hockey and with more nets, in the last two years has pointed the finger right against the goalkeeper's equipment and has imposed a drastic downsizing. Last year more stringent parameters were introduced on the size of the trousers and the leggings, while this summer the dimensions of bibs, caliper and shield were reduced.
The results of the new regulation have already given important results, with a significant increase in goals. Last year, the average score per game was the best of the last 12 years (5.94 per game and an average of 2.97 GPG per team) but this season the figure has grown further: 6.18 goals per game with an average per team of 3.14.
It is no coincidence that today there are the beauty of 11 players with a step that will lead them to exceed 50 goals.
To understand the exceptional nature of the championship we are witnessing, just think that in the last two years no player has exceeded the quota 50 (Ovechkin with 49 goals was the top-scorer in 2017 / '' 18 and Crosby with 44 in 2016 / ''17), while this year, Matthews and Laine have a pace that would lead them to reach 63 goals, Pastrnak and Skinner at 56.
As for Ovechkin, his performances are absolutely monstrous: 25 goals in 30 games so far and, if he keeps this average, he will close the year with 68 goals, surpassing his personal record of 65 recorded in 2007/2008.
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To find another year in which even 11 players have broken through the 50, you have to go back a quarter of a century, to the 1992 / '' 93, and to have more than 3 you need to browse the almanacs until 2005 / ' '06, with 5 (Cheechoo, Jagr, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin and Heatley).
It's true, we are only a third of the season, but the goals scored are not diminishing with the passing of the months and there is reason to think that these averages can be maintained until next April, also taking into account the difficulties that the goalie are having with the new, downsized, equipment.
The goalkeepers have an SV% of .907 - the worst since 10 years now - and, despite the fact that they have fewer shots on goal, the teams have a better average score, both in 5vs5 and in power play.
In short, the NHL of this year is a show not to be missed!
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