I've always felt like how truly incredible the run these two players had in '09 gets forgotten, perhaps because it's their only championship thus far, I'm not really sure. The team around them certainly gets overrated, yes they made two straight Finals but if you look at the roster it really wasn't a good, or even average Cup winning team. Not very strong scoring depth, their 3rd leading scorer was a 38 year old Bill Guerin who had less than half the points Crosby or Malkin did. Average at best goaltending, and a below average defensive core. Malkin and Crosby dragged that team to victory in what's definitely the most impressive performance by a duo in the playoffs that I've seen in my lifetime. Sakic and Forsberg is obviously the prolific playoff duo for my generation, but their best playoff performances didn't really coincide as much to one dominant year.
Malkin and Crosby combined to score 67 points in 24 games, for a 2.79 points per game average (average goals per game per team in the '09 playoffs was 2.74). Their points to teams goal for % was 85% (67 points, the team scored 79 total in the playoffs).
The highest scoring duo Lemieux ever had was in '92 with Kevin Stevens, they combined for 62 points in 21 games (*Mario amazingly only played 15), for 2.95 points per game average (average goals per game per team in the '92 playoffs was 3.22). Their points to teams goals for % was 75% (62 points, the team scored 83 total goals). This Penguins duo is obviously at a disadvantage because they played fewer games, had much better scoring depth (Jagr and Francis) and Mario missed time. But it's hard to argue that they had a more dominant single playoffs for a duo than the '09 duo.
In 1972 Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito combined for 48 points in 15 games, for a 3.20 points per game average (average goals per game per team in the '72 playoffs was 3.01). Their points to team goals for % was 75% (48 points, the team scored 64 goals). Again, this duo is disadvantaged when you look at relative share of team scoring because they has much stronger depth than the '09 Penguins.
Wayne Gretzky + [choice of 80s HHOF Oiler] is the only duo I can see that actually scored more total points than the '09 duo, and he did it several times in '85 with Coffey and '88 with Messier. In 1985 Gretzky and Coffey combined for a ridiculous 84 points in 18 games, for a 4.67 points per game average (average goals per game per team in '85 playoffs was 3.74). Their points to team goals for % was 86% (84 points, the team scored 98 goals total). Impressive considering how many other great offensive players were on that team.
Anyways, that's just a small amount of number crunching, obviously raw numbers don't mean everything, and my perspective is very limited compared to many of the users here. I wouldn't even put that much stock into the 'points to team goals for %' stat, I was always just amazed at the 85% figure by the Penguins duo so I was curious as to what the stat was for others, but those guys played on much stronger teams (although that's not a bad argument in favour of the '09 duo). However, it certainly looks like the '09 playoff run by this duo had the perfect storm of high GP, weak supporting cast and prolific scoring to be one of the truly great performances by a duo in the playoffs in the history of the game.
I was merely looking at the highest scoring duos ever which obvious excludes a lot of great ones who played when the playoffs were much shorter, but it is pretty impressive that the only comparable duos since ~1970 include Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. Which is part of the reason why I'm posting here. I'm sure if I wanted to I could look up the most relatively dominant postseasons by Howe/Lindsay, Beliveau/Richard, etc. but the perspective I can get on performances by these players here exceeds the one I could get my simply scouring hockey-reference (whose usefulness drops the further back you want to go).
So yeah, what do the experts think of where this dominant duo playoff performance ranks all-time? I think that Esposito/Orr and Gretzky/Cofffey/Messier had the better single postseasons, but I'm actually confident in saying that the '09 playoffs was the best performance by a Penguins duo ever and the best period of the last quarter century. Surely if we got to see healthy prime Mario with healthy prime Jagr go on a Cup run that would change, but we never got that.
EDIT: Somehow in this long-winded post I failed to mention it, but I should specify that I'm talking about scoring duos specifically. That way we avoid the tricky argument of comparing, say, Crosby and Malkin in '09 to Sakic and Roy in 1996.
Also should note that I completely screwed up and skipped over Lemieux's 1991 playoffs with him and Recchi combining for 78 points in 24 games (or him and Stevens for 77 in 24). So um....Ignore all that stuff about the '09 duo definitely being the best in the past quarter century. Complete brain fart on my part.
Malkin and Crosby combined to score 67 points in 24 games, for a 2.79 points per game average (average goals per game per team in the '09 playoffs was 2.74). Their points to teams goal for % was 85% (67 points, the team scored 79 total in the playoffs).
The highest scoring duo Lemieux ever had was in '92 with Kevin Stevens, they combined for 62 points in 21 games (*Mario amazingly only played 15), for 2.95 points per game average (average goals per game per team in the '92 playoffs was 3.22). Their points to teams goals for % was 75% (62 points, the team scored 83 total goals). This Penguins duo is obviously at a disadvantage because they played fewer games, had much better scoring depth (Jagr and Francis) and Mario missed time. But it's hard to argue that they had a more dominant single playoffs for a duo than the '09 duo.
In 1972 Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito combined for 48 points in 15 games, for a 3.20 points per game average (average goals per game per team in the '72 playoffs was 3.01). Their points to team goals for % was 75% (48 points, the team scored 64 goals). Again, this duo is disadvantaged when you look at relative share of team scoring because they has much stronger depth than the '09 Penguins.
Wayne Gretzky + [choice of 80s HHOF Oiler] is the only duo I can see that actually scored more total points than the '09 duo, and he did it several times in '85 with Coffey and '88 with Messier. In 1985 Gretzky and Coffey combined for a ridiculous 84 points in 18 games, for a 4.67 points per game average (average goals per game per team in '85 playoffs was 3.74). Their points to team goals for % was 86% (84 points, the team scored 98 goals total). Impressive considering how many other great offensive players were on that team.
Anyways, that's just a small amount of number crunching, obviously raw numbers don't mean everything, and my perspective is very limited compared to many of the users here. I wouldn't even put that much stock into the 'points to team goals for %' stat, I was always just amazed at the 85% figure by the Penguins duo so I was curious as to what the stat was for others, but those guys played on much stronger teams (although that's not a bad argument in favour of the '09 duo). However, it certainly looks like the '09 playoff run by this duo had the perfect storm of high GP, weak supporting cast and prolific scoring to be one of the truly great performances by a duo in the playoffs in the history of the game.
I was merely looking at the highest scoring duos ever which obvious excludes a lot of great ones who played when the playoffs were much shorter, but it is pretty impressive that the only comparable duos since ~1970 include Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. Which is part of the reason why I'm posting here. I'm sure if I wanted to I could look up the most relatively dominant postseasons by Howe/Lindsay, Beliveau/Richard, etc. but the perspective I can get on performances by these players here exceeds the one I could get my simply scouring hockey-reference (whose usefulness drops the further back you want to go).
So yeah, what do the experts think of where this dominant duo playoff performance ranks all-time? I think that Esposito/Orr and Gretzky/Cofffey/Messier had the better single postseasons, but I'm actually confident in saying that the '09 playoffs was the best performance by a Penguins duo ever and the best period of the last quarter century. Surely if we got to see healthy prime Mario with healthy prime Jagr go on a Cup run that would change, but we never got that.
EDIT: Somehow in this long-winded post I failed to mention it, but I should specify that I'm talking about scoring duos specifically. That way we avoid the tricky argument of comparing, say, Crosby and Malkin in '09 to Sakic and Roy in 1996.
Also should note that I completely screwed up and skipped over Lemieux's 1991 playoffs with him and Recchi combining for 78 points in 24 games (or him and Stevens for 77 in 24). So um....Ignore all that stuff about the '09 duo definitely being the best in the past quarter century. Complete brain fart on my part.
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