When is it stat padding?

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

No such thing uf you can beat a team 20-0 that's what you do

 

[Unspecified]

lol no it is not

Actually there is. Usually when a team is up by 4 goals with a couple minutes left they will not press for the goal and circle back in the neutral zone killing time. It's what teams do so they are not stat padding.

 

[HugginThePost]

You're pretty triggered by McDavid and Draisaitl, aren't you?

Not at all, they are both amazing players.

But they play a lot of minutes. Lots.

Of course, they have to. They "are" the Edmonton Oilers. If they don't score, they don't win. The depth is pretty awful. It feels like this year it's even more pronounced. Can anyone provide the % of goals those two are contributing this year? No idea how to do that!! I'm betting it's high, like, high, high.

There will be the Oiler crowd that claims point production isn't linear. "More time doesn't mean more points!!" "There have been studies!!" For the most part I can get behind this. But there is always exceptions to the rule, and McDavid is that exception. Clearly.

You can't have it both ways. HFOil, hell, HFBoards, will tell you that McDavid generates several scoring chances every time he's on the ice. When both Drai and McDavid are in the ice together it's even more obvious. In fact, there are several on HFOil that will claim he creates more scoring chances than anyone since Lemieux. Some even say he's better at it than Gretzky!

So, with that in mind, how can they turn around and claim that "more time doesn't equal more points"? It's obvious that the more time McDavid spends on the ice the more he's going to score. And he spends a shit ton of time on the ice, both 5v5 and on the power play.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out once playoffs roll around. He and Drai will have played a lot of hockey. More than the average defenseman.

 

[cbjgirl]

This is the first time I've heard of either of these (Nash was 20 years ago, so ok) allegations. Seems pretty outlandish, especially when Benn won the Art Ross with under 90 points I believe. Is there any even circumstantial evidence to suggest this happened or was it talked about at the time?

If you were watching the games at the time (like I was) it was very evident that the offensive game plan was "give the puck to Nash". If he was on the ice and they were in the offensive zone, he was getting the puck even if other options were better options. I will say that it wasn't the whole season, just after the trade deadline when it was apparent that there was nothing else to play for.

 

[SomeDude]

Considering in the early-late 80's, guys would get assists credited to them while sitting on the bench, I don't think anyone should get too upset about stars feasting on bottom teams today.

 

[6ix]

Nba and NFL is notorious for stat padding in blowouts/garbage time, but NHL not so much IMO.

 

[4EDM14OIL93]

If this is the craziest "mental gymnastics" you've ever seen, I'll just assume you're new to hockey and HFBoards, in particular.

The Oilers were home and cooled in the Pacific, by that point in the season, and really only gained position on San Jose with their final streak (mostly beating up on Colorado, Vancouver, and LA). McDavid's crazy hotstreak didn't move the needle much on their playoff positioning, so I'm not wrong to question the overall impact of that stretch in comparison to the rest of the season. I'm always suspect about late-season upticks, especially when a team has already settled into a playoff position (see Perry's Hart in 2011). And McDavid basically admitted to gunning for the Art Ross in that last month, while his competitors geared down in preparation for the playoffs.

At the end of the day, people were just excited to see the Oilers climb out of the basement and McDavid was a good choice for the Hart. But, everything taken into consideration, I still feel Crosby was a better choice (and the better player).

While slight hyperbole on his part the point remains that it was pretty bad. The Oilers were fighting for first in the division and lost out to Anaheim on the final day of the regular season.

Putting up big numbers down the stretch while fighting for playoff positioning can literally only be a good thing that would help his Hart trophy case