Hockey – at least as much as its major sports brethren – is a “team” sport. And part of that is its lack of tolerance for gaudy statistics among its champions. At least lately. For example, the last time…
…a 50-goal scorer played on a Stanley Cup winner was in 2001. Joe Sakic netted 54 goals in leading the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup. Only four times in the past 20 years has a Stanley Cup winner featured a 50-goal scorer (Sakic turning the trick twice), once in the last 13 seasons. In fact, no Richard Trophy winner has added a Stanley Cup to his resume in the year he led the league in goals over the past 20 seasons (and yes, that includes the goal-scoring leaders pre-dating the introduction of the Richard Trophy in 1999). Only 11 times in that span did the goal-scoring leader on the Stanley Cup winner rank in the top-ten in goals scored.
…a 100-point scorer won a Stanley Cup was in 2009. That would be when Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each crossed the 100-point threshold in leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a title. But don’t get the idea that it is a regular occurrence. While a Stanley Cup winner has featured a 100-point scorer in seven of the past 20 seasons, only four Cup winners had such a scorer in the last 17 seasons. On only four other occasions did the team-leading scorer on a Stanley Cup winner finish with more than 90 points. In fact, in the past 20 seasons there are only three Ross Trophy winners who added the Stanley Cup to their hardware take. Nine of the 20 Stanley Cup champions featured top scorers who did not place in the top ten among the league’s top point-getters.
We are not arguing that any player (cough-Ovechkin-cough…. cough-Backstrom-cough) should tank the last two weeks of the season to keep from getting to 50 goals or 100 points in an effort to improve his chances to win a Cup. We are just saying is that they are not particularly valuable benchmarks with respect to team success. But you knew that already… Hockey is, after all, a team sport.
Peerless, this is a great post. Only problem is that this is what the rest of the league uses as their ammunition to rank on the Caps not having playoff mentality. You should have let ME post it on my Penguins blog. lol! Thanks for the post. It was great.
ReplyDeleteGreat. Thanks for making an important but often overlooked point and backing it with stats. But what is the solution for the Capitals to this problem?
ReplyDeleteYour constant stream of analysis is incredible. I read all your stuff, usually daily. In fact, I kept up with all the Caps Blogs while on vacation, on the Cruise Ship @ a mere 75 cents a minute for connect time.
ReplyDeleteI spent more on internet time than I did on beer........
"But what is the solution for the Capitals to this problem?"
ReplyDeleteCongero, the "solution" is a theme to which I keep returning. Keeping tabs on what Ovechkin does is nice, but the key is in how the team around him performs -- the effectiveness of management in building a team around him. When Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby were drafted, the point I made at the time was that the key was not in what they did -- their high performance is a constant. The key is in how well their respective teams build around the stars.
If the Caps are going to win a Cup this year, Ovechkin might get his 50/100, but the players to watch will be guys like Knuble, Laich, Fehr, Fleischmann, Poti. The "next tier" players have to perform, the way a Dustin Byfuglien performed along with a Jonathan Toews last season.
Yea. Wish the Caps had another Dustin Byfuglien. The guy was amazing come crunch time. Too bad converting Tyler Sloan to forward didn't work out quite so well but he doesn't have the bulk of Byfuglien nor maybe the hockey sense. I think being stronger down the middle if it ever materializes will take away some of our woeful one dimentionality but I still think we need more grit higher in the lineup to attain The Cup. That said, there may not be enough grit in the world to make a Flash/ Semin line produce well in the post season.
ReplyDeleteSolution. Spread the firepower out more and find some big tough grit that can skate with the second and third lines. I like Chimea but his hands are a liability. Fehrsy could keep developing along these lines if BB would give him a better chance.
How 'bout a healthy DJ King?! rumor has it he has some skills. Not gonna hang my hat on it but he does give one hope.
Of coarse all these musings are contingent on finding those second and third centers.