Outside the very end of blow out games scenario and player with 2 goals going for the hat trick in those, one famous case was Iginla Art Ross, once the flames were out of the playoff run they became a make Iginla win the art ross team.
For the case above, that one example that stats padding isn't necessarily bad, once the team is out of the playoff run not having has a game plan to win the most game has possible is not bad anymore obviously, that fun for the team, your franchise player, the fanbase and so on, some game with no overtime he played nearly 30 minutes when the second highest player on is team (defenseman) were at 22-23 minutes by the end of the season.