NHL Team Record When Scoring First 2017-18

Leaders: Record When Scoring First, 2017-18

1stTampa Bay Lightning43 Games83.7%
2ndVegas Golden Knights41 Games82.9%
3rdWashington Capitals37 Games81.1%
4thNashville Predators51 Games80.4%
5thWinnipeg Jets47 Games78.7%
6thBoston Bruins37 Games78.4%
7thLos Angeles Kings32 Games78.1%
8thToronto Maple Leafs50 Games78.0%
9thColorado Avalanche47 Games76.6%
10thSt. Louis Blues45 Games75.6%

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 2017-18, 31 teams qualify for this board; the median is 69.2% and Tampa Bay Lightning leads at 83.7%.

Record When Scoring First leaderboard

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

2017-18

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, 2017-18, All situations
#	Team	Win %	Games	W-L-OTL	Home	Away	Last 10	Blown leads	Blown %	Pts %	% of games	Pctl
1	Tampa Bay Lightning	83.7%	43	36-6-1	83.3%	84.0%	100.0%	7	16.3%	84.9%	52.4%	100
2	Vegas Golden Knights	82.9%	41	34-5-2	87.5%	76.5%	80.0%	7	17.1%	85.4%	50.0%	97
3	Washington Capitals	81.1%	37	30-4-3	79.2%	84.6%	80.0%	7	18.9%	85.1%	45.1%	93
4	Nashville Predators	80.4%	51	41-4-6	85.2%	75.0%	71.4%	10	19.6%	86.3%	62.2%	90
5	Winnipeg Jets	78.7%	47	37-4-6	81.5%	75.0%	100.0%	10	21.3%	85.1%	57.3%	87
6	Boston Bruins	78.4%	37	29-2-6	85.7%	68.8%	100.0%	8	21.6%	86.5%	45.1%	83
7	Los Angeles Kings	78.1%	32	25-3-4	82.4%	73.3%	66.7%	7	21.9%	84.4%	39.0%	80
8	Toronto Maple Leafs	78.0%	50	39-8-3	82.1%	72.7%	62.5%	11	22.0%	81.0%	61.0%	77
9	Colorado Avalanche	76.6%	47	36-7-4	85.7%	63.2%	60.0%	11	23.4%	80.9%	57.3%	73
10	St. Louis Blues	75.6%	45	34-8-3	80.0%	70.0%	50.0%	11	24.4%	78.9%	54.9%	70
11	Minnesota Wild	75.0%	40	30-6-4	87.0%	58.8%	66.7%	10	25.0%	80.0%	48.8%	67
12	Anaheim Ducks	73.2%	41	30-4-7	77.3%	68.4%	80.0%	11	26.8%	81.7%	50.0%	63
13	Florida Panthers	71.7%	46	33-11-2	71.0%	73.3%	83.3%	13	28.3%	73.9%	56.1%	60
14	Pittsburgh Penguins	70.2%	47	33-9-5	84.0%	54.5%	50.0%	14	29.8%	75.5%	57.3%	57
15	San Jose Sharks	70.0%	40	28-8-4	71.4%	68.4%	66.7%	12	30.0%	75.0%	48.8%	53
16	New Jersey Devils	69.2%	39	27-7-5	69.6%	68.8%	75.0%	12	30.8%	75.6%	47.6%	50
17	Dallas Stars	68.2%	44	30-11-3	76.9%	55.6%	42.9%	14	31.8%	71.6%	53.7%	47
18	New York Rangers	66.7%	36	24-10-2	78.9%	52.9%	40.0%	12	33.3%	69.4%	43.9%	42
19	Philadelphia Flyers	66.7%	36	24-6-6	75.0%	56.3%	83.3%	12	33.3%	75.0%	43.9%	42
20	Columbus Blue Jackets	65.2%	46	30-10-6	75.0%	54.5%	66.7%	16	34.8%	71.7%	56.1%	37
21	Calgary Flames	64.7%	34	22-6-6	58.8%	70.6%	100.0%	12	35.3%	73.5%	41.5%	33
22	Carolina Hurricanes	63.0%	46	29-12-5	68.2%	58.3%	57.1%	17	37.0%	68.5%	56.1%	30
23	New York Islanders	60.5%	38	23-10-5	57.9%	63.2%	60.0%	15	39.5%	67.1%	46.3%	27
24	Edmonton Oilers	59.5%	37	22-11-4	61.9%	56.3%	50.0%	15	40.5%	64.9%	45.1%	23
25	Chicago Blackhawks	54.3%	46	25-15-6	55.6%	52.6%	50.0%	21	45.7%	60.9%	56.1%	20
26	Buffalo Sabres	54.1%	37	20-9-8	55.0%	52.9%	50.0%	17	45.9%	64.9%	45.1%	17
27	Ottawa Senators	53.3%	30	16-10-4	64.3%	43.8%	50.0%	14	46.7%	60.0%	36.6%	13
28	Detroit Red Wings	52.4%	42	22-10-10	52.0%	52.9%	40.0%	20	47.6%	64.3%	51.2%	10
29	Vancouver Canucks	51.5%	33	17-10-6	50.0%	53.3%	100.0%	16	48.5%	60.6%	40.2%	7
30	Arizona Coyotes	50.0%	46	23-16-7	48.1%	52.6%	62.5%	23	50.0%	57.6%	56.1%	3
31	Montreal Canadiens	45.9%	37	17-12-8	50.0%	41.2%	40.0%	20	54.1%	56.8%	45.1%	0

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Frequently asked questions

Which team leads the NHL in Record When Scoring First in 2017-18?

Tampa Bay Lightning leads with 83.7%. The median of the 31 qualified teams is 69.2%.

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?