As usual there are too many straw men here to cover and we have been all over it before, the exceptions do sometimes prove the rule and no we don't only talk about the 99.9% of players here many of those players often have seasons in the 80-90% range, or less, as well but that's a whole other matter.
Straw men? You're the only one with that going on. I provide stats and rationale backed up by actual trends and more stats.
You come up with such awe inspiring and game changing proof like "look at their skates" or "watch a Junior game today compared to an NHL game back then".
As far as exceptions proving the rule...have you not noticed by now that every time we have this conversation, I try to use 3 different player names each time
The list of exceptions is starting to look like 2/3's of the top 25 scorers from the 80's and 90's now heh.
I know, you must be waiting for it to hit 75% before you will no longer call them exceptions even though to most rational people exceptions usually make up well under 5% but hey, damn those rational people I say
look at the goalies and skating from the early 80's to mid 90's and beyond, quite simply the changes in the goalies (equipment and otherwise) and the overall skating in the league is dramatically different.
Part of the problem here seems to be "the best of the best" argument that is being defended.
In the early 80's it's still primarily an all Canadian league with some Americans and a hand full of players from Europe, fast forward to mid 90's the quality and quantity of non Canadian players has greatly outpaced the increase in 9 teams.
Simply look at raw numbers, then post season all star voting and this trend, or change become quite clear.
There is a possibility that even with this massive influx of new talent that the league didn't get any better or more competitive but that lies on the premise that Canadian hockey got a lot worse and there really isn't any evidence to suggest that either.
Maybe the changes in the game get full recognition as some point here or the bar will continually be set higher for players to come than the higher standard set for the most recent guys already.
Then again maybe not.
Look dude, I don't know how else to put this to you. This conversation happens about once a month or so and everytime, you go limping away with your tail between your legs because you provide no actual evidence, just theories and conjecture.
Let me try this then.
These aren't exact numbers but they're close enough to make my point about scoring levels and tier scoring.
Lets say in the 80's, teams average 300 goals each and the top tier players are getting 33% of them. That's 100 goals
Today, teams are averaging about 220 goals and the top tier players are accounting for about 43% of them. That's 95 goals.
Can you now see how yes, scoring on a League level is down but those missing goals are not coming out of the pockets of the top tier players by anything close to the amount that's coming out of the other tiers?
Cop out much? Or maybe skates in the '80s weren't integrated enough for your liking
Not nice!!! You made me snort coffee out of my nose.