What would the modern day equivalent of this 1970/71 Bruins season be? Top 4 scorers in the NHL, 6 of top 8, 7 of top 11 in a 14-team league
September 6, 2024
What would the modern day equivalent of this 1970/71 Bruins season be? Top 4 scorers in the NHL, 6 of top 8, 7 of top 11 in a 14-team league
19 comments
Only times in history that a team had the top 4 scorers in the league was the 1970/71 Bruins (14 teams in the league) and 1973/74 Bruins (16 teams), although in 1973/74, the Bruins next highest scorer was 19th. Top 3 scorers in the league has been done on 4 other occasions: 1939/40 Bruins (7 teams), 1944/45 Canadiens (6 teams), 1949/50 Red Wings (6 teams), 1954/55 Canadiens (6 teams).
Bruins top 7 scorers in 1970/71 were Orr and the entire top 6 forward group, so the least productive member of the Bruins top 6 outscored the top point producer on 10 of the other 13 teams in the league. Next highest scorer for Boston was 3rd-liner Derek Sanderson in 24th, who outscored the top point producer on 4 of the other 13 teams in the league.
3rd-liner Ed Westfall (9th on the Bruins, 35th in the league) outscored the top point producer on 3 teams.
Once you get down to the last member of the Bruins top 9 Wayne Carleton (10th on the Bruins, 67th in the league), all 13 other teams’ top scorer outscore him, although the Penguins are close (48 points for their top scorer vs. 46 for Carleton).
Bruins ultimately had 12 players (top 9 forwards, top 3 D) with 40+ points, which has only been done by the 1976/77 Canadiens, 1977/78 Canadiens, 1981/82 Islanders and 1991/92 Capitals. 7 players with 70+ points, equaled by the 1981/82 Nordiques and 1992/93 Penguins (7 75+ point players hasn’t been equaled), and 4 players with 100+ points, equaled by the 1982/83 Oilers, 1983/84 Oilers, 1985/86 Oilers and 1992/93 Penguins.
Not to mention the undisputed best defensemen in the league at the time, arguably of all time (though I lean toward The Perfect Human myself)
Well in 2023-2024 it would look like;
Kucherov
MacKinnon
Mcdavid
Panarin
Draisaitl
Rantanen
Kaprisov
Probably Deadmonton could do this with Draisatl, McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins and Nurse
Just another reason to say that Orr was the best defender in history, 102 assists at that time is inhuman. Imagine just how much more dominant he’d be without shitty knees and scummy agents
That title gave me a headache lol.
And they still didn’t win the Cup!
Avs generally do a decent impression of this if landeskog is healthy and chush and Toews
Edit:
Ugh I’m tired
I think how mind boggling this is has turned this reply section into a mess and my first reply wasn’t my best either
We’re all boggled in the mind
This is one of the craziest sports stats situations I’ve seen in ages, great job digging this up, preposterous stuff ultimately
Didn’t they have 8 20+ goal scorers as well?
Best team to never win a cup
I want to say 95-96, when Pittsburgh had Lemieux, Jagr, Francis in the top 10 and Petr Nedved was at #14. All with 100 point seasons. (Nedved at 99, but you get it)
To help break it down:
– their top PP unit (given the distribution of points) was Orr Espo Bucyk McKenzie Stanfield oddly enough
– Hodge had 93 even strength points! Gretzky averaged around 95 in the late 80s. Espo had 99 that season
– the team scored 399 goals and league average was 244 (+155) the mid 80s Oilers were around 420 in a 300 league
– minor post intermission to acknowledge the 420 🔥🌲 smoke if you got em
– the 2nd line then was Cashman stanfield mckenzie and each ended up above a point per game
– a minor note this was before 4th lines were really a thing so TOI would’ve been quite high for that 3rd line
– this team was magnetic to high scorers because young reggie leach (60 goals and the all time playoff goals record) played on it
✔
The Oilers had the top two, three of the top nine, including a guy who had 25 more points than number two and 40 more than the next highest non-teammate like, a year and a half ago. If you squint there’s a world where the Leafs could have 4/10 if the second line goes on a huge shooting percentage bender, but realistically pretty dang unlikely Tavares can still get in there at his age.
There will obviously never be a team that is even remotely close to this in the modern era, there is just too much parity and the cap exists.
There were plenty of similar stories in the O6 era, I think the Wings had the top 3, and #5 in one year. I am sure the Canadiens had similar rosters.
But 70/71 basically was the O6 era. You had 6 teams competing and 6 teams just happy to be there.
At first I read #3 as Johnny Boychuk and thought I really under estimated how old he was.
The Bruins were an incredible team that year… until they ran into a rookie goalie named Ken Dryden.
The most amazing thing about this list is that 8-11 are left handed. The world population is 10%!
It was Edmonton 2 years ago when mcdavid and draisaitl set power play records and even RNH was able to put up 100 points lol.
19 comments
Only times in history that a team had the top 4 scorers in the league was the 1970/71 Bruins (14 teams in the league) and 1973/74 Bruins (16 teams), although in 1973/74, the Bruins next highest scorer was 19th. Top 3 scorers in the league has been done on 4 other occasions: 1939/40 Bruins (7 teams), 1944/45 Canadiens (6 teams), 1949/50 Red Wings (6 teams), 1954/55 Canadiens (6 teams).
Bruins top 7 scorers in 1970/71 were Orr and the entire top 6 forward group, so the least productive member of the Bruins top 6 outscored the top point producer on 10 of the other 13 teams in the league. Next highest scorer for Boston was 3rd-liner Derek Sanderson in 24th, who outscored the top point producer on 4 of the other 13 teams in the league.
3rd-liner Ed Westfall (9th on the Bruins, 35th in the league) outscored the top point producer on 3 teams.
Once you get down to the last member of the Bruins top 9 Wayne Carleton (10th on the Bruins, 67th in the league), all 13 other teams’ top scorer outscore him, although the Penguins are close (48 points for their top scorer vs. 46 for Carleton).
Bruins ultimately had 12 players (top 9 forwards, top 3 D) with 40+ points, which has only been done by the 1976/77 Canadiens, 1977/78 Canadiens, 1981/82 Islanders and 1991/92 Capitals. 7 players with 70+ points, equaled by the 1981/82 Nordiques and 1992/93 Penguins (7 75+ point players hasn’t been equaled), and 4 players with 100+ points, equaled by the 1982/83 Oilers, 1983/84 Oilers, 1985/86 Oilers and 1992/93 Penguins.
Not to mention the undisputed best defensemen in the league at the time, arguably of all time (though I lean toward The Perfect Human myself)
Well in 2023-2024 it would look like;
Kucherov
MacKinnon
Mcdavid
Panarin
Draisaitl
Rantanen
Kaprisov
Probably Deadmonton could do this with Draisatl, McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins and Nurse
Just another reason to say that Orr was the best defender in history, 102 assists at that time is inhuman. Imagine just how much more dominant he’d be without shitty knees and scummy agents
That title gave me a headache lol.
And they still didn’t win the Cup!
Avs generally do a decent impression of this if landeskog is healthy and chush and Toews
Edit:
Ugh I’m tired
I think how mind boggling this is has turned this reply section into a mess and my first reply wasn’t my best either
We’re all boggled in the mind
This is one of the craziest sports stats situations I’ve seen in ages, great job digging this up, preposterous stuff ultimately
Didn’t they have 8 20+ goal scorers as well?
Best team to never win a cup
I want to say 95-96, when Pittsburgh had Lemieux, Jagr, Francis in the top 10 and Petr Nedved was at #14. All with 100 point seasons. (Nedved at 99, but you get it)
To help break it down:
– their top PP unit (given the distribution of points) was Orr Espo Bucyk McKenzie Stanfield oddly enough
– Hodge had 93 even strength points! Gretzky averaged around 95 in the late 80s. Espo had 99 that season
– the team scored 399 goals and league average was 244 (+155) the mid 80s Oilers were around 420 in a 300 league
– minor post intermission to acknowledge the 420 🔥🌲 smoke if you got em
– the 2nd line then was Cashman stanfield mckenzie and each ended up above a point per game
– a minor note this was before 4th lines were really a thing so TOI would’ve been quite high for that 3rd line
– this team was magnetic to high scorers because young reggie leach (60 goals and the all time playoff goals record) played on it
✔
The Oilers had the top two, three of the top nine, including a guy who had 25 more points than number two and 40 more than the next highest non-teammate like, a year and a half ago. If you squint there’s a world where the Leafs could have 4/10 if the second line goes on a huge shooting percentage bender, but realistically pretty dang unlikely Tavares can still get in there at his age.
There will obviously never be a team that is even remotely close to this in the modern era, there is just too much parity and the cap exists.
There were plenty of similar stories in the O6 era, I think the Wings had the top 3, and #5 in one year. I am sure the Canadiens had similar rosters.
But 70/71 basically was the O6 era. You had 6 teams competing and 6 teams just happy to be there.
At first I read #3 as Johnny Boychuk and thought I really under estimated how old he was.
The Bruins were an incredible team that year… until they ran into a rookie goalie named Ken Dryden.
The most amazing thing about this list is that 8-11 are left handed. The world population is 10%!
It was Edmonton 2 years ago when mcdavid and draisaitl set power play records and even RNH was able to put up 100 points lol.