Some NHL stats are impressive. Some are bizarre. And some make you wonder if the record book is broken. The NHL has been around for more than a century, so naturally, the numbers have gotten a little weird from time to time.
From absurd scoring streaks to freakish goalie performances, these are the kinds of numbers that make you stop, read them again and ask, “How the hell did that happen?” And the best part? Every one of them actually happened.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the craziest stats the NHL has ever produced.
Darryl Sittler’s 10-Point Night
Darryl Sittler put together one of the most ridiculous individual performances in NHL history on February 7, 1976, when the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins 11-4. Sittler scored six goals and added four assists, meaning he had a hand in 10 of Toronto’s 11 goals. Not bad for a Saturday night at the office.
What makes the stat even crazier is that nobody has managed to match it since. Sittler’s 10-point game remains the NHL record nearly five decades later, with the closest anyone has come being eight points. It’s the kind of record that sounds fake until you realize it actually happened in an NHL game.
Gretzky Has More Assists Than Anyone Has Points
You’ve probably heard this one before, but it’s worth repeating because the numbers are genuinely stupid. Wayne Gretzky finished his NHL career with 1,963 assists, meaning he had more assists by himself than any other player in NHL history has total points.
The second-highest scorer ever, Jaromir Jagr, finished with 1,921 points, so Gretzky’s assists alone still beat him by 42. And just to make the whole thing even more ridiculous, Gretzky also scored 894 goals, giving him 2,857 points in total. At some point, the numbers just stop looking real.
Mario Lemieux Scored Five Goals in Five Different Ways
During the 88-89 season, Lemieux scored five goals in a single game, with each one coming in a different way. He scored at even strength, on the power play, shorthanded, on a penalty shot and into an empty net. Basically, he found every possible way to put the puck in the net.
Lemieux led the Pittsburgh Penguins to an 8-6 win that night, and he remains the only player in NHL history to score five goals in five different ways in the same game. It’s one thing to score five times; it’s another to somehow cover the entire hockey scoring menu while doing it.
Randy Holt Took 67 Penalty Minutes in One Game
Some NHL games get a little chippy. This one completely lost the plot. During the 78-79 season, Los Angeles Kings defenseman Randy Holt racked up 67 penalty minutes in a single game against the Philadelphia Flyers, setting an NHL record that still stands. Holt was assessed nine penalties, including three game misconducts, three major penalties and two 10-minute misconducts.
The chaos happened mostly in the first period, when a series of fights eventually turned into a full-on line brawl. Holt finished the night with more penalty minutes than some players managed over an entire season, while the game itself ended with 352 combined penalty minutes. The Flyers won 6-3, but honestly, by that point the score almost feels like a minor detail.
Joe Malone Scored Seven Goals in One Game
Scoring seven goals in an NHL game sounds absurd now, so imagine doing it in 1920, when the league was only in its third season. That’s exactly what Joe Malone did for the Quebec Bulldogs in 1920, scoring seven times in a 10-6 win over the Toronto St. Patricks. More than a century later, nobody has matched him.
The really wild part is that Malone’s seven-goal explosion barely made a splash at the time. One contemporary report apparently gave him only a passing mention, despite the fact that he had just done something nobody else in NHL history had done before or since. And if you’re wondering how close he came to eight, he actually had another goal disallowed for offside.
Brian Boucher Recorded Five Straight Shutouts
For five straight games spanning the 03-04 season, opposing teams simply couldn’t figure out how to score on the Phoenix Coyotes. Brian Boucher recorded five consecutive shutouts, setting a modern-day NHL record. His scoreless streak lasted 332 minutes and one second, meaning opponents went more than five and a half hours of game time without finding the back of the net.
The streak finally ended when Atlanta’s Randy Robitaille scored 6:16 into the first period of game No. 6. But by then, Boucher had already spent the past five games making the opposing forwards look completely miserable.
The Gretzkys are the Highest-Scoring Brother Duo in NHL History
Here’s one that feels almost like a trick question. Wayne and Brent Gretzky are the highest-scoring brother duo in NHL history, with a combined 2,861 points. Wayne, naturally, accounts for 2,857 of them. Brent? Four. That’s it. Four points.
Brent played just 13 NHL games, scoring one goal and three assists, while Wayne spent 1,487 games turning the NHL record book into his personal scrapbook. So yes, technically, the Gretzky brothers are the most productive brother duo ever. It just happens that one brother did approximately 99.9% of the work.