daver
Registered User
The phrase "positioning his team to not get to the point where a series is on the line" is so vague I don't even know what you mean by it. Are you saying he scored key goals in such games? Because I don't recall many examples of this and couldn't find many either.
Clutch is when a player produces in a critical moment of a game. Critical meaning there is pressure during these moments due to the game being in the balance. A lot of things can influence the outcome of a game without necessarily feeling like a critical moment at the time. If you omit the pressure component when defining clutch, you can justify any player being clutch by giving butterfly effect anecdotal situations. I'm not interested in going down that kind of rabbit hole. We all know what we mean when we use the word "clutch".
I agree with the last paragraph as far as him not being a notable clutch SCF performer not taking anything away from his reputation as the best player of his era.
Well the OP is not clear on what they mean by "clutch". Seems clear that total points in the SCF is considered "clutch", not necessarily those scored in specific times of game or series, so if you want to argue he isn't "clutch" in the SCF, then he is the hands down clutchest player in the other rounds.
If you want to argue your definition of clutch, then I would question the value of placing that label on someone in comparison to Crosby, who as mentioned above, has scored the most valuable playoff points of his era, and as noted in the above breakdown, context is needed when looking at his SCF point totals.
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