Is Ovechkin the 5th best player of all time?

Is Ovechkin the 5th best of all time?

  • Yes he is

    Votes: 31 10.5%
  • No he is not (please specify)

    Votes: 235 79.7%
  • I think Ovechkin is #4 or better

    Votes: 7 2.4%
  • I had a bad day and regret reading these options

    Votes: 22 7.5%

  • Total voters
    295

BackToTheBasics

Registered User
Dec 26, 2013
3,831
826
Three problems with your point here:

1) Your stats disregard 30 some percent of all scoring. It's a fairly common way of detracting from one of the best powerplay players and the greatest powerplay goal scorer of all time.

2) The Pens likely have the upper hand in terms of goal differential in the seasons you've not included. They certainly have it as a team as a whole.

3) Ovechkin is always going to have tougher match-ups than Crosby because the Capitals have generally never had a second line that would occupy anywhere near as much attention as Ovechkin's line. Whereas for the Pens, Crosby is typically going to split time against the opposition's top D pairing or shut down lines with Malkin.



You just made a post to suggest it's not wins and losses that matter, but goal differential at 5v5 only. But you rely on wins and losses here (which is a proxy for making the playoffs). Personally, I'm not a big believer in WOWY stats because there are too many other factors that amount to important context.
Another point of contention with how the data is presented is that it includes 2 massive outlier seasons (2010/2017) that skew the results. Removing these seasons, the ratios are nearly identical at 1.05 for the Pens and 1.07 for the Capitals. If we consider this a valid way to judge anything in any case, it makes much more sense to look at the cumulative average for a shorter timeframe like '09-'11, '12-'14, etc. as the circumstances change for both teams with being either cup contenders or borderline playoff teams.
 

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