How many goals are unassisted, anyway? The most recent and most spectacular example may have been Jagr's short-handed unassisted goal against the Eastern Conference stars, the Toronto Maple Leafs, during Lemieux's comeback game on December 27th. An even better case in point was Kovalev's incredible short-handed swoop right off of Leafs left-winger Sergei Berezin's stick during the December 13th game in Pittsburgh against the same team, loss or no loss (and that really wasn't a Berezin giveaway, as the TSN sportscasters affirmed; Kovalev just took it!) Yes, those were beautiful - but they're the exception, not the rule. If we just look at Mario Lemieux's stats before his return, he had a total of 59 unassisted goals, or just under 10 percent of all the goals he scored in his career before his retirement. And this is Le Magnifique!

Unfortunately, most general player or team statistics don't keep track of unassisted goals, to show their rarity. They keep track of power play goals, short-handed goals, game-winning goals, even-strength goals, game-tying goals and shots on goal: but they never mention the exact number or percentage of unassisted goals, so it's hard to try and find this information, unless it's for a superstar like Mario Lemieux. Even then, you have to surf a lot of websites to find one that actually lists this kind of information. And I had to actually count the number of unassisted goals by Lemieux listed on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website, since they didn't give the total, only the description of each!

Ten percent!!! That means 90 percent of goals, by a great player like Mario Lemieux, were only made possible through assists by other players. It's probably the same for most other stars - and even more so for most other players.

Why an article devoted to assists? Well, it's been sticking in my craw for a while. I believe that the emphasis on goal scoring as a measure of a player's worth, and the relative lack of respect given to assists, probably hurts hockey more than it helps. Why? Because every time some reporter sticks a microphone in the face of a star forward to ask the guy "why he's not scoring", thus discounting the value of assists, it puts pressure on these guys to hog the puck, and to get others to pass to them come hell or high water, instead of being justifiably proud of their ability to set up their teammates.

Even though players know better - or should - as do the coaches, general managers and owners, media emphasis on goals over assists can affect fan perceptions of star value. Fan perceptions, in turn, affect box-office, amongst other things.

When Maple Leafs Captain Mats Sundin went through a 13-game goalless streak, despite the fact that he had amassed several points along the way, one message-board Leafs fan on penaltybox.com went so far as to suggest he be traded for a snowblower... Of course, Leafs GM and head coach Pat Quinn never stopped backing Sundin for a single minute; but even players themselves feel the pressure. After garnering four assists in three games, which should give anyone cause for pride, a frustrated Berezin was actually quoted on faceoff.com as saying: "Scoring goals is what I'm supposed to do and I'm not doing that".

Are Jagr's recent, now-past tribulations a case in point? As of January 4th 2001, he was fifth in the overall points race: first in goals with 24, but with only 23 assists, compared to NHL points leader Joe Sakic, who had 33...

It's a shame assists are not given the same respect as goals, since goals are primarily an outcome of teamwork. The present and past chemistry between Jagr and Lemieux are a textbook case of this!

Disciplined teamwork is a feast for the eyes and a joy to behold for fans everywhere. Assists are beautiful. They create goals. Let's appreciate them! Cheers to the art of assists!

(c) Dominique Millette 2000