66 goals

[tvp2003]

A spectacular piece by Wes Gilbertson -- an oral history of Lanny McDonald's 66-goal season in 1982/83. It is a record that has stood for 40 years, not sure if it will ever be broken in today's game.

Jim Peplinski, a longtime teammate, close friend and co-captain when the Flames won the Stanley Cup in 1989: “We used to kid Lanny that the assists that he generated were rebounds off goalies’ pads. He was just a born assassin, a born shooter. It’s a hair-tingling experience for me, even playing pond hockey with Lanny now. When he gets the puck going down the right side, or when we’re playing pond hockey and it’s 4-4 and you change ends at 5, when he gets the puck, it’s all he can think about is to score and to shoot and to shoot again. He just shoots and shoots and shoots.”

Guy Chouinard, who skated as McDonald’s centre in 1982-83: “We used to tease him quite a bit about, ‘Give the puck to Lanny and let’s go for the rebound. Because it’s not coming back. It’s going to go at the net.’ I think Lanny was OK with that. Because most of the time that he shot, it was a goal for us.”

https://calgaryherald.com/feature/la...on-anniversary

P.S. The pool story at the end is hilarious

[Coach]

Can confirm. I've played with the Alumni quite a few times in my life. Lanny had a laser. Otto does too. I watched a 60 year old Lanny score a wrist shot from the blue line that went top corner so fast you would have thought he shot it from 10 feet out in 1983.

[hah]

Wow, what a great article! Kudos to Mr Gilbertson.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

It is a record that has stood for 40 years, not sure if it will ever be broken in today's game.

Great story! But are they just referring to it as being a Flames record?

It's definitely possible in the modern era as McDavid just had 64. The one that probably won't be broken is Gretzky's 92. Ugh, why do they all have to be Oilers.

[boogerz]

Lanny's 66 goals is impressive and technically the team record, but its only 53 adjusted goals in today's game. By comparison, Iginla's 52 goals in 02-23 is 60 adjusted goals and his 50 goals in 07-08 are 56 adjusted goals.

[tvp2003]

Oh yes H&L, I just meant the Flames team record.

The note about “adjusted goals” is interesting — hadn’t considered that before. Those numbers are impressive.

[Dion]

I remember Lanny having a great one timer he would use from the faceoff circle. He receives a pass from Chouinard and in one motion the puck would be in the net.

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by boogerz

Lanny's 66 goals is impressive and technically the team record, but its only 53 adjusted goals in today's game. By comparison, Iginla's 52 goals in 02-23 is 60 adjusted goals and his 50 goals in 07-08 are 56 adjusted goals.

I think for team record purposes we'll just leave it at 66.

Great article

[bdubbs]

Haha. The pool story is amazing.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by boogerz

Lanny's 66 goals is impressive and technically the team record, but its only 53 adjusted goals in today's game. By comparison, Iginla's 52 goals in 02-23 is 60 adjusted goals and his 50 goals in 07-08 are 56 adjusted goals.

Is 66 goals in 82-83 still only 53 today? This was a pretty high scoring season.

[boogerz]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Is 66 goals in 82-83 still only 53 today? This was a pretty high scoring season.

66 goals goals in 82-83 is still only 53 goals today.

This year might have been the highest scoring season since 93-94, but the average goals per team per game was only 3.18. There's virtually no change since last year (3.14) and league scoring has consistently been >3.00 goals per team per game since 2018-19.

The average goals per team per game in 82-83 was 3.86, which was the 11th highest scoring season of all-time. It was also season with the highest PP efficiency of all-time (22.94%).

By comparison, the average goals per team per game in 02-03 was 2.65, which was the 81st highest scoring season of all-time. The only seasons with less scoring than 02-03 were the other dead puck years, a couple seasons in the 50s, and a bunch of pre-WWII seasons.




Lanny was a great player, is a great ambassador for the Flames, and can keep his record. However, Iginla's 02-03 season is the GOAT from goal scoring standpoint and will probably never be topped unless the Flames win the draft lottery.