Taylor Hall's 2017-18 campaign was, in a word, ridiculous.
Despite missing six games, he shattered previous career highs by scoring 39 goals and recording 93 points. He was the driving force behind an overachieving New Jersey Devils team and he was rewarded for his efforts with a Hart Trophy.
As always he was fantastic at 5v5. He didn't necessarily do anything out of the ordinary, though. In terms of volume, he didn't set new highs in assists, points, shots or chances. On a per 60 basis, he has averaged more goals, assists, points, shots, and chances in the past.
The big spike in production came on the power play.
Hall's career high in PP points through the first seven years of his career was 21. His per 82 game average during that span was 17.3. Last year he put up 37. He was much more efficient than ever before.
Even though Hall's shot and chance numbers were in the same ballpark as his career average, he blew past his previous career high by putting up more than 10 points per 60 minutes played. He led the league in that category. In fact, Blake Wheeler (9.41) was the only other player to average more than 9.0 points per 60.
How did Hall manage to do it?
The Devils averaged 111.3 shot attempts/60, 64.07 shots/60, and 57.29 chances/60 with No. 9 on the ice. Those are career highs across the board.
Another factor – perhaps the biggest one – is he benefited from a high on-ice shooting percentage. A really high one. With Hall on the ice, the Devils scored on 19.07% of their shots.
That was the highest on-ice total in the league and was well above his average of 13.9% in the seven years prior.
Had his on-ice shooting percentage been in line with his career norms, he would have been on for 33 goals rather than 45.
If we assume he still would have collected a point on 82% of the goals he was on for, he'd have tallied 10 fewer points on the man advantage.
Though he was really good, he was also really lucky. That probably won't be the case next year.