Glossary
NHL stats glossary
What every number on the scoreboard and leaderboard actually means.
Hockey stats read like code until someone translates them. A box score shows goals, assists, shots, penalty minutes, and a save percentage; a standings table shows points, wins, and the tiebreakers behind them. The definitions below cover the numbers Goal Horn Live displays, with the league-average marks that tell you whether a number is good.
Scoring stats
- G / A / P
- Goals, assists, and points. Points are goals plus assists, so a 30-goal, 40-assist season is 70 points. A goal is credited to the last player who touched the puck for the scoring team, with up to two assists.
- PPG and PPP
- Power-play goals and power-play points, meaning anything scored while the other team has a player in the penalty box. Power plays convert at roughly 20 percent league-wide, so a unit scoring on 25 percent of its chances is well above average.
- S% (shooting percentage)
- Goals divided by shots on goal. League average sits near 10 percent, so a player shooting 18 percent is likely riding a hot streak rather than a new skill.
Goaltending stats
- GAA (goals against average)
- Goals allowed per 60 minutes played, calculated as goals against times 60 divided by minutes played. A starter posting a 2.30 GAA across 55 games is having a strong season.
- SV% (save percentage)
- Saves divided by shots faced. Anything at .915 or better is above league average; .930 over a full season is Vezina territory.
- SO (shutouts)
- A complete game with zero goals allowed. Shutouts are rare enough that six or seven in a season leads the league.
Team stats and standings
- Points and points percentage
- Teams earn two points for a win and one for an overtime or shootout loss, which is why a .600 points percentage is a playoff pace over an 82-game season.
- Regulation plus overtime wins (ROW)
- Wins earned before a shootout. It is the tiebreaker used when two clubs finish with the same point total, so a shootout win counts for points but not for ROW.
- Special teams
- The power play and the penalty kill, usually expressed as percentages. A team converting on 25 percent with the man advantage and killing 82 percent of penalties is winning the special-teams battle most nights.
Read these alongside the live standings and stat leaders, and a hot start, a cold streak, or a genuinely elite season becomes easy to separate.