Sebastian Aho scored his 30th goal of the season on Saturday night, tying the career-high he set last year. What kind of impact have his tallies had for the Carolina Hurricanes?
It’s no secret how important Sebastian Aho is to the success of the Carolina Hurricanes. A transition to playing center in the NHL did nothing to slow the young Finn down; to the contrary, it sparked his best season to date. With his team bearing down for a playoff push, Aho has hit the 30 goal mark for the second consecutive season and is on pace for over 45 goals.
That would match and probably surpase the Hurricanes’ single-season record, set by Eric Staal in the 2005-06 season. His 31st last night set a personal career record for himself as well.
Not too shabby.
So, with Aho on an excellent goal-scoring pace, let’s take a look at the importance of his goals. To break this down, we’re going to look at goals that fall into the following categories:
- First goal of a game
- Game tying goals
- Go ahead goals
- Game-winning goals
- Goals scored late in a rout
- Insurance goals
Only one player in @Canes team history has required fewer games to score their 30th goal of a season than @SebastianAho (55 GP) - Eric Staal (46 GP in 2005-06). #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/gPN8UkiNg0
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 9, 2020
Before we get into everything, let’s take a look at the breakdown of his goals by period this season:
- 1st: 8
- 2nd: 10
- 3rd: 13
That’s a pretty even breakdown, though none of us should be surprised at the distribution. The Hurricanes have maintained an annoying habit of starting slow and building their game as time passes. The positive is that it shows that Aho’s production doesn’t lag as the game goes on and that he’s there when the team is pushing.