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How rare is a nine goal game?

By Steve Paulus|
Mar 17, 2021; New York, New York, USA; The scoreboard at the end of the second period shows the New York Rangers leading the Philadelphia Flyers by the score of 9-0 at Madison Square. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Bennett/POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 17, 2021; New York, New York, USA; The scoreboard at the end of the second period shows the New York Rangers leading the Philadelphia Flyers by the score of 9-0 at Madison Square. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Bennett/POOL PHOTOS-USA TODAY Sports

When the New York Rangers pummeled the Philadelphia Flyers 9-0 on Wednesday night, it was the first time since November 10, 1998 that the team had scored as many goals.  That night the Rangers scored 10 goals, beating the Tampa By Lightning 10-2 in Tampa.   That’s a long time between goal explosion, but how long has it been?  And how unusual was it? Here are some facts to put it into perspective

  • On November 10, 1998, Filip Chytil, K’Andre Miller, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafrenière had not even been born yet.
  • On that date, Llibor Hajek, Ryan Lindgren, Adam Fox, Tarmo Reunanen and  Brett Howden were in diapers, all under a year old.
  • Mika Zibanejad, who scored the natural hat trick on Wednesday and set the NHL record with six points in one period, was five and a half years old.
  • The 1998-99 New York Rangers were destined to miss the playoffs.  Their leading scorer was Wayne Gretzky followed by John MacLean, Brian Leetch and Adam Graves.
  • The youngest Ranger to play in that game was Manny Malhotra, 18,  who is now 40 years old.
  • The oldest Ranger to play in that game was 38-year-old Wayne Gretzky who just turned 60 this year.
  • Since that game the Rangers have had 1,572 opportunities to score nine goals in a game and didn’t do it.  They also had 129 playoff games to do it.
  • 62 teams scored nine or more goals in a game in the time it took for the Rangers to do it again. 16 teams have scored 10 or more goals since November 1998.
  • The average age of the 1998-99 Rangers team was 29.2 years.  The average age of the current team is 25.8 years.
  • The Tampa team that the Rangers beat in 1998 was the worst team in the NHL.  The lightning won only 19 of 82 games and finished with 47 points.  The Flyers team the Rangers beat Wednesday had already reached 31 points in 27 games.
  • The Rangers definitely eased off the gas pedal in the third period. Maybe they shouldn’t have. The most goals ever score by the Rangers in a game is 12 against the California Golden Seals in November 1971.
  • The Rangers have score 11 goals in a game nine times including that 12 goal game.
  • The nine goal differential was the most for the Rangers since a 9-0 win over the New Jersey Devils on March 31, 1986.   That means that not a single current Ranger player was even born the last time the Rangers beat a team by nine goals.

So, that ‘s a look at the numbers.  One thing is certain, based on history, if you think that you will see the Blueshirts score as many as nine goals in a game anytime soon, think again.  We can certainly hope that we won’t have to wait another 8,153 days before we see it again.

And before we finish, the Rangers put all nine goals in one tweet today and if you have a minute, here you go.


60 seconds to watch something that hasn’t happened in over 22 years, pretty amazing.

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