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Scoring first, is it really THAT important?

It has been debated over the years, many coaches believe it is the key to winning games, players feel the same way, but is it really important to score first?  Even if your opponent scores on you first, the score is only 1-0, is it that hard to come back from?   Apparently so, as just 5 of 25 NHL teams had winning percentages under .500 when they scored first.  This season, just 4 of 30 teams have winning percentages under .500.  What’s interesting to note is that 2 of the 5 teams who had a sub-.500 winning percentage last season have a sub-.500 winning percentage this season.  What teams are they?  Read the chart below to find out:






























































































































































































Team 02-03 record Win % 03-04 record Win %
1) Minnesota 31-4-1-0 .861 5-4-1-0 .500
2) Philadelphia 29-2-7-1 .744 6-1-1-0 .750
3) Ottawa 37-8-6-0 .725 4-2-0-0 .667
4) New Jersey 34-6-7-1 .708 4-2-3-0 .444
5) Dallas 31-5-6-2 .705 4-1-0-0 .800
6) Detroit 35-7-6-3 .686 5-1-0-0 .833
7) Boston 27-9-3-1 .675 2-0-1-1 .500
8) Anaheim 28-8-3-3 .667 4-0-0-2 .667
9) Washington 28-7-4-4 .651 2-2-0-0 .500
10) Toronto 33-10-6-2 .647 5-0-1-1 .714
11) Phoenix 21-4-5-3 .636 3-1-1-0 .600
12) Colorado 30-7-6-6 .612 5-3-0-0 .625
13) Edmonton 26-7-6-4 .605 4-1-2-0 .571
14) Vancouver 26-6-10-1 .605 8-3-2-0 .615
15) Tampa Bay 24-8-6-2 .600 6-0-0-0 1.000
16) New York I. 21-8-7-1 .568 5-0-2-0 .714
17) Calgary 20-7-7-2 .556 4-0-0-1 .800
18) Nashville 22-6-8-4 .550 3-3-1-0 .429
19) St. Louis 19-9-5-3 .528 5-1-0-0 .833
20) Los Angeles 22-13-4-3 .524 6-2-0-0 .750
21) Chicago 23-12-6-3 .523 3-0-2-0 .600
22) Montreal 21-12-4-4 .512 6-1-0-0 .857
23) Atlanta 20-13-3-4 .500 3-1-0-0 .750
24) Columbus 17-12-4-1 .500 3-1-0-0 .750
25) Florida 17-9-5-3 .500 4-2-0-0 .667
26) New York R. 20-15-6-1 .476 4-1-0-1 .667
27) Pittsburgh 19-15-3-3 .475 2-0-1-0 .667
28) Buffalo 18-13-3-4 .474 7-0-1-0 .875
29) Carolina 13-11-2-4 .433 2-0-3-0 .400
30) San Jose 16-14-5-5 .400 1-0-4-0 .200

Current records are as of games played through the afternoon of Saturday, November 8, 2003.  Winning percentage is calculated by the number of wins divided by total games played in which the team scored first.


As you can see, Carolina and San Jose are the 2 teams that have a winning percentage below .500 in both seasons, although this season is still young.  What’s interesting to note as well is that no team in the bottom 10 actually made the playoffs last season.  When you looks closer, you can see that only 1 team out the top-16 actually did not make the playoffs last season (Phoenix), while only one out of the other 14 made the postseason (St. Louis).  So, does scoring first lead to success?  Apparently so, although I still say the team that scores most will win, regardless of who scores first. 


Check back next Saturday for a follow-up to this article where I will breakdown the team records when they don’t score first. 


Statistics courtesy of the National Hockey League.

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