NHL Team Record When Scoring First 2025-26

Leaders: Record When Scoring First, 2025-26

1stColorado Avalanche50 Games84.0%
2ndBuffalo Sabres44 Games81.8%
3rdTampa Bay Lightning38 Games81.6%
4thDallas Stars42 Games81.0%
5thNew Jersey Devils34 Games79.4%
6thEdmonton Oilers40 Games75.0%
7thCarolina Hurricanes49 Games73.5%
8thMinnesota Wild45 Games73.3%
9thDetroit Red Wings36 Games72.2%
10thNew York Rangers36 Games72.2%

The full ranked table, with filters, follows.

What Record When Scoring First measures

Win percentage in games where the team scored the opening goal. League-wide, the team that scores first wins about two games in three. All 32 teams, regular season, with the number of games behind each figure. Wins divided by games in the situation; W-L-OTL beside it. Blown leads are the games with the lead at that point that the team did not win (losses in regulation, overtime or a shootout).

Year to year this split repeats at r = 0.44 (252 team-seasons, 2017-18 to 2025-26), against r = 0.60 for overall points %. That is moderate, and most of it is team quality: a good team wins more in every split.

Scoring first is worth a lot on the night, but how well a team converts it mostly restates how good the team is. Use the overall points % and goal differential boards first. In 2025-26, 32 teams qualify for this board; the median is 68.1% and Colorado Avalanche leads at 84.0%.

Record When Scoring First leaderboard

Season2026-27 2025-26 2024-25 2023-24

Older seasons

2022-23 2021-22 2020-21 2019-20 2018-19 2017-18

Year to year this split repeats at r = 0.44 (252 team-seasons, 2017-18 to 2025-26), against r = 0.60 for overall points %. That is moderate, and most of it is team quality: a good team wins more in every split.
The Home, Away and Last 10 columns (where shown) count only those games, so each holds a fraction of the season sample: a split of a few games is noise, not a trend.
We have no live or period odds history, so we can’t compare these records to the market after vig. This is a description of what happened, not a bet.

NHL Team Record When Scoring First, 2025-26, All situations
#	Team	Win %	Games	W-L-OTL	Home	Away	Last 10	Blown leads	Blown %	Pts %	% of games	Pctl
1	Colorado Avalanche	84.0%	50	42-2-6	87.0%	81.5%	85.7%	8	16.0%	90.0%	61.0%	100
2	Buffalo Sabres	81.8%	44	36-6-2	90.9%	72.7%	80.0%	8	18.2%	84.1%	53.7%	97
3	Tampa Bay Lightning	81.6%	38	31-5-2	81.0%	82.4%	100.0%	7	18.4%	84.2%	46.3%	94
4	Dallas Stars	81.0%	42	34-6-2	76.2%	85.7%	100.0%	8	19.0%	83.3%	51.2%	90
5	New Jersey Devils	79.4%	34	27-6-1	81.3%	77.8%	100.0%	7	20.6%	80.9%	41.5%	87
6	Edmonton Oilers	75.0%	40	30-5-5	75.0%	75.0%	100.0%	10	25.0%	81.3%	48.8%	84
7	Carolina Hurricanes	73.5%	49	36-10-3	77.3%	70.4%	62.5%	13	26.5%	76.5%	59.8%	81
8	Minnesota Wild	73.3%	45	33-6-6	72.7%	73.9%	100.0%	12	26.7%	80.0%	54.9%	77
9	Detroit Red Wings	72.2%	36	26-7-3	64.7%	78.9%	40.0%	10	27.8%	76.4%	43.9%	73
10	New York Rangers	72.2%	36	26-7-3	64.3%	77.3%	100.0%	10	27.8%	76.4%	43.9%	73
11	Philadelphia Flyers	71.9%	32	23-5-4	60.0%	82.4%	100.0%	9	28.1%	78.1%	39.0%	68
12	Florida Panthers	70.7%	41	29-9-3	68.2%	73.7%	83.3%	12	29.3%	74.4%	50.0%	65
13	Ottawa Senators	70.0%	40	28-6-6	68.4%	71.4%	80.0%	12	30.0%	77.5%	48.8%	61
14	Montreal Canadiens	69.6%	46	32-10-4	70.0%	69.2%	100.0%	14	30.4%	73.9%	56.1%	58
15	Los Angeles Kings	68.3%	41	28-6-7	63.6%	73.7%	100.0%	13	31.7%	76.8%	50.0%	55
16	Utah Mammoth	68.2%	44	30-12-2	66.7%	70.0%	100.0%	14	31.8%	70.5%	53.7%	52
17	Washington Capitals	68.0%	50	34-10-6	76.0%	60.0%	100.0%	16	32.0%	74.0%	61.0%	48
18	Nashville Predators	67.7%	31	21-6-4	76.5%	57.1%	80.0%	10	32.3%	74.2%	37.8%	45
19	Vegas Golden Knights	67.6%	34	23-4-7	73.3%	63.2%	66.7%	11	32.4%	77.9%	41.5%	42
20	Anaheim Ducks	66.7%	33	22-9-2	77.8%	53.3%	28.6%	11	33.3%	69.7%	40.2%	39
21	Pittsburgh Penguins	66.0%	47	31-7-9	69.6%	62.5%	66.7%	16	34.0%	75.5%	57.3%	35
22	New York Islanders	65.9%	44	29-12-3	76.2%	56.5%	50.0%	15	34.1%	69.3%	53.7%	32
23	Boston Bruins	65.9%	41	27-8-6	84.0%	37.5%	50.0%	14	34.1%	73.2%	50.0%	29
24	Columbus Blue Jackets	64.0%	50	32-11-7	62.1%	66.7%	28.6%	18	36.0%	71.0%	61.0%	26
25	San Jose Sharks	60.5%	38	23-11-4	70.6%	52.4%	50.0%	15	39.5%	65.8%	46.3%	23
26	Winnipeg Jets	59.1%	44	26-12-6	59.3%	58.8%	50.0%	18	40.9%	65.9%	53.7%	19
27	Seattle Kraken	58.5%	41	24-13-4	70.0%	47.6%	0.0%	17	41.5%	63.4%	50.0%	16
28	St. Louis Blues	57.4%	47	27-12-8	62.5%	52.2%	66.7%	20	42.6%	66.0%	57.3%	13
29	Calgary Flames	53.8%	39	21-14-4	63.0%	33.3%	50.0%	18	46.2%	59.0%	47.6%	10
30	Chicago Blackhawks	48.9%	45	22-15-8	40.9%	56.5%	16.7%	23	51.1%	57.8%	54.9%	6
31	Toronto Maple Leafs	47.4%	38	18-11-9	47.8%	46.7%	33.3%	20	52.6%	59.2%	46.3%	3
32	Vancouver Canucks	40.6%	32	13-15-4	38.9%	42.9%	40.0%	19	59.4%	46.9%	39.0%	0

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Frequently asked questions

Which team leads the NHL in Record When Scoring First in 2025-26?

Colorado Avalanche leads with 84.0%. The median of the 32 qualified teams is 68.1%.

How is Record When Scoring First calculated?

Wins divided by games in the situation; W-L-OTL beside it. Blown leads are the games with the lead at that point that the team did not win (losses in regulation, overtime or a shootout). Regular season only, from the NHL's official game data.

How reliable is Record When Scoring First?