Article content Segment review #5, Games 41-50 I recall watching a game involving the Los Angeles Kings in the early ’90s which at one point featured the following graphic: “Wayne Gretzky — 17 points in last 7 games”. I laughed aloud and said to my wife, “they could just as easily put up a similar blurb saying Gretzky has scored 170 points in his last 70 games, or 1700 points in his last 700 games, and they wouldn’t be far wrong”. The point being that the Great One’s highlighted “hot streak” was pretty much on brand with his long term track record.
Splendid numbers to be sure, but pretty much Business As Usual. Flash forward 30-odd years to the modern NHL. TV producers and pundits alike continue to pick and choose streaks and slumps of cherry-picked lengths.
However, one measure of team performance over a specific intermediate term can be found in the NHL standings, namely each club’s record over the last 10 games. Here for example is a slightly abridged version of the Pacific Division including games through Jan 28: That L10 column provides a useful snapshot of how a given team has been trending over the past three weeks or so. In this example we see the Oilers have posted a 7-3-0 mark over their past 10 GP.
They’ve been the best team in the division over that span, part of the reason that they have ascended to first place in the Pacific. It’s a nice run, and yet it’s not much different from the .670 points percentage the team has compiled over th.
