Panthers’ Reinhart chasing pair of historic NHL records

Story by Randy Boswell

When Florida Panthers sharpshooter Sam Reinhart scored his league-leading 19th power-play goal of the season at 11:49 of the second period in Friday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the B.C.-born centreman put his team up 2-1 and himself a stride closer to history in a remarkable run he’s on to challenge two longstanding single-season NHL scoring records: most power-play markers and most game-winning goals.

There was no more scoring in the middle frame, and as the seconds began ticking away in the game’s final minute after a so-far scoreless third period, it looked like Reinhart would record his 10th GWG of the 2023-24 NHL campaign — the other goal-scoring category in which he tops all players in the league (alongside Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson).

Then Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby shoveled a nifty pass to Evgeni Malkin off the edge of the Panthers’ crease during a dramatic Penguins scramble for the tying goal, and Malkin banked the equalizer in off of sprawling Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky with 42 seconds left on the clock.

Three-on-three overtime failed to decide the contest, but Reinhart’s wrister off the post and in past Pens’ goalie Alex Nedeljkovic gave Florida a 3-2 shootout victory. The snipe (his second in two shootout attempts this season) earned Reinhart a first-star selection but — technically speaking — no game-winning goal. Scoring in the five-minute OT period adds to a player’s offensive stats and counts as a game-winner, but there’s no GWG credit or scoring bump for bagging the decisive goal in a shootout.

Still, in just the 48th game of this 82-game season, the 28-year-old Reinhart had tied the Panthers’ all-time club record for most power-play goals in a season, equalling the 19-PPG standard set by Scott Mellanby in 1995-96 and matched by Pavel Bure in 2000-01 — though their totals are for 79 and 82 games respectively.

A night later against the New York Islanders, Reinhart snapped home his 20th power-play goal to become sole owner of the Panthers’ single-season PPG record. It’s safe to say Reinhart will go on to smash the old franchise mark by a long shot this season, but there’s also a fair chance he could match or break the all-time single-season NHL record for power-play goals (Tim Kerr’s 34 PPGs for the 1985-86 Philadelphia Flyers) as well as a more enduring league benchmark: the 53-year-old NHL single-season record of 16 game-winning goals set by Boston Bruins scoring legend Phil Esposito in 1970-71, repeated by Espo in 1971-72, then equalled again in 1983-84 by Quebec Nordiques great Michel Goulet.

Among the game-winners Reinhart has scored this season was a particularly memorable one on Jan. 11, when he flipped home a backhander with less than a second remaining in overtime to give the Panthers a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. He’s currently on a 13-game point-scoring streak and has 19 goals in the past 17 games.

Had he earned his 10th game-winner against Pittsburgh in that Jan. 27 match, Reinhart would have been on track to reach an all-time NHL best of 17 GWGs by season’s end. As it stands, with the Panthers idle until Feb. 6 for the All-Star Break, his nine game-winners after 49 games puts him on pace for 15 in 82 games — a total that would position Reinhart alone in second place all-time behind Esposito and Goulet. Pettersson, also with nine game-winners after 49 games, has an equal shot at the record. Next in line are Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Dallas’ Matt Duchene with seven each.

The Panthers’ Bure (14 GWGs in 1999-2000) is currently tied for second on the all-time list with Cooney Weiland, a Boston Bruins centreman who notched 14 game-winners in 1929-30 — the year the NHL first allowed forward passing of the puck but hadn’t yet implemented an offside rule.

That tells you how long it took Esposito to establish a new GWG high-water mark and how durable the Espo-Goulet record has been.

And before you say, “Wait — what about Wayne Gretzky?” the NHL’s all-time greatest single-season and career goal-scorer never got more than 12 game-winning goals in a single year. He did that in 1981-82, while teammate Jari Kurri owns the Edmonton Oilers’ franchise record with 13 in 1984-85, tying him with five others in the overall NHL rankings — including the Bruins’ David Pastrnak (2022-23), the Montreal Canadiens’ Guy Lafleur (1978-79) and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Charlie Conacher (1934-35).

Gretzky and Brett Hull, however, do share the NHL record of 24 career game-winning goals in the playoffs. Brad Richards set the league record for most game-winning goals in a single playoff season with seven in 23 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-04.

And Jaromir Jagr has the most career game-winning goals with 135, topping a list that includes Alex Ovechkin at No. 2 (126), Gordie Howe in third (121), Esposito at No. 4 (118) and Brett Hull in fifth (110). Gretzky, surprisingly, is in 21st with 91 regular-season game-winners.

Reinhart is also in an excellent position to challenge Kerr’s 37-year-old single-season record of 34 power-play goals for 1985-86 Flyers.

Currently, Reinhart’s 20 power-play goals is a whopping seven ahead of Colorado Avalanche right-winger Valeri Nichushkin’s second-place 13. (Nichushkin hasn’t played since Jan. 10 and is on indefinite leave dealing with undisclosed personal issues.) Vancouver Canucks right-winger Brock Boeser is No. 3 with 12.

Reinhart is on pace to score 33 man-advantage markers by the end of the regular season, a total that would put him in sole possession of second place in NHL history, one PPG ahead of the Edmonton Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl (32 in 2022-23) and Dave Andreychuk, who scored 32 in a 1992-93 season split between the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs.

But Kerr’s longstanding superlative isn’t out of reach.

Chasing two marquee NHL scoring records is just a bonus feature of Reinhart’s stellar season, which includes his first-ever All-Star Game selection and seems sure to earn him consideration as a Hart Trophy candidate alongside MacKinnon, Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov and a handful of other standouts.

With 37 goals and 25 assists for 62 points, Reinhart is in 10th place in the overall NHL scoring race as of Jan. 28, he’s No. 2 in goals between Toronto’s Auston Matthews (40) and Boston’s Pastrnak (33), and tied for second in short-handed goals (4) behind co-leaders Simon Holmstrom of the Islanders and the Flyers’ Travis Konecny, each of whom have five.

He’s also one of the league’s most efficient marksmen; Reinhart is currently 8th in shooting percentage at 27.6 per cent.

The son of high-scoring NHL defenceman (and two-time All-Star) Paul Reinhart, a key player with the 1980s-era Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, Reinhart also has two older brothers — Max and Griffin — who had brief NHL careers.

Reinhart, 6’2” and 193 pounds, was drafted No. 2 overall in 2014 by the Buffalo Sabres. He recorded five 20-goal seasons with the Sabres before being traded in 2021 to Florida, where he had 33 goals and 82 points in 2021-22 and 31 goals and 67 points in 2022-23 prior to this year’s breakout season, when his torrid goal-scoring pace could see him break two very old and venerable NHL records.

Randy Boswell is an Ottawa, Canada journalist with an interest in hockey history.

LATEST STORIES FROM THE HOCKEY NEWS – FLORIDA

Three takeaways: Samoskevich moves to Lundell line, tired Panthers play smart game

Ekman-Larsson overtime goal gives Florida 3-2 win over Islanders

The Hockey Show: Talking All-Star, Kings, Oilers and more with ESPN’s Emily Kaplan

Lundell, Samoskevich playing prominent roles as Panthers travel to face Penguins

THN Archive: Panthers goalie masks’ place among greatest of all time