Montreal Canadiens: Three Habs Records That Will Never Be Broken
George Hainsworth – Most shutouts in a season
George Hainsworth played in a very different era for the National Hockey League. It was dealt a century ago that he was a star goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens, bursting onto the scene in the late 1920’s and becoming the top goaltender in the league. He won the first three Vezina Trophy’s in NHL history.
Now, the 1920’s were a much different game than we see in the 2020’s. Well, we don’t see much hockey at all in 2020, but there was only slightly less goal scoring during the 1920’s than there is during the NHL’s hiatus in 2020.
In 1928-29 for example, Ace Bailey led the league in scoring with 22 goals in 44 games. Howie Morenz led the Habs with 17 goals and was 4th in the NHL that season. So it wasn’t a particularly high scoring era. Players weren’t allowed to pass the puck forward to a teammate at that time, so creating offence was difficult.
Still, George Hainsworth’s 22 shutouts in 44 games is an unbelievable feat. Yes, it was a low scoring season for the NHL, but no one else was particularly close to Hainsworth in the shutout race. Roy Worters had the second most that year with 13. Hainsworth almost doubled him in shutouts that season.
Hainsworth played every game that year for the Habs and allowed just 43 goals in 44 games. Somehow, the Habs were swept in the first round of the playoffs that year, with Hainsworth “struggling” by allowing five goals in three games.
The second most shutouts ever in a season was 15 by Alec Connell the year before Hainsworth had 22. These days, the best goalie in the league might have seven or eight shutouts in a season. Last season, Sergei Bobrovsky led the league with 9 in 62 games.
For a goaltender to come close to matching Hainsworth’s record would require the league to substantially change their current rules and make it harder to score. Most rules that the league adds these days are to increase scoring, as they want more goals and more entertainment. The league is loathe to help goalies in any way, shape or form.
That’s why we will never see another goaltender shutout another team 22 times again. It might be a long time before we see a goalie get halfway to that legendary number.