Scoring up...but not as much as you might think

The NHL season is now 35 games old so (since you need two teams to play a game) each team has played on average about 2 1/3 games. 

There have been some wild periods and games so far, which might lead you to conclude that scoring is up.

And it is ... but only by about 3.4%.

First 35 games this year: 191 goals (excluding shootouts)  5.46 goals per game
First 36 games last year: 190 goals (excluding shootouts)  5.28 goals per game

It took 7 calendar days to play the 36 games last year; only four days to play the 35 games so far this season.

For their part, the Islanders have scored/allowed 10 goals in their two games this year (5 for, 5 against) after having only 5 goals scored (2 for, 3 against) in their first two games last season.

 
Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick