The top scoring team last year (Tri-City) had 262 goals on the season. Two teams (Calgary & Vancouver) have already exceeded that total this year, with four more (Brandon, Saskatoon, Tri-City, and Kelowna) on pace to do so before the end of the year. Imagine, six teams with more goals than last year's top scoring team.
Calgary has already topped the 300 goal mark and Vancouver will almost certainly get there too. The last time a WHL team scored more than 300 goals in a season was the 2002-03 Kelowna Rockets with 311.
Average goals per game for recent seasons:
| Goals | Games | GPG | |
| 2008-09 | 4561 | 698 | 6.53 |
| 2007-08 | 4759 | 792 | 6.01 |
| 2006-07 | 4629 | 756 | 6.12 |
| 2005-06 | 4195 | 720 | 5.83 |
| 2004-05 | 3910 | 720 | 5.43 |
| 2003-04 | 3985 | 720 | 5.53 |
| 2002-03 | 4587 | 684 | 6.71 |
| 2001-02 | 4766 | 684 | 6.97 |
| 2000-01 | 4598 | 648 | 7.10 |
| 1999-00 | 4260 | 648 | 6.57 |
| 1998-99 | 4549 | 648 | 7.02 |
So what's behind the big increase in scoring this year? Any ideas?
2 comments:
Starting the man-advantage with a face-off in the offensive zone must have had an impact. What are the effiencies of scoring with the man advantage (or killing the penalties) as compared to prior years?
Rob S in Calgary
Some pretty bad teams out there this year that give up a lot of goals. Also a lot of very small D groups as opposed to the traditional large WHL type D. They may generate more offense but also definitely give up a lot more goals. Bad combination if you have a small mobile D that can't play tough and forwards who can't score but play grittier.
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