calfan 0 Report post Posted February 7, 2008 shortened for reading purposes. I see your logic and I see what it is about. and yeah, with such definition of clutch goals I'm not going to argue Iginla is more crucial to (any) team than Datsyuk or Zetterberg are with Wings now. the thing I'm speaking about here is that players contribution and role depends on their team shape and how much of the load is on the 1st line guys shoulders and how much can they count on other lines. my point is that with Flames who lack scoring behind 1st line, Iginla must deliver or the team is basically doomed. which is basically what common knowledge says: Flames play good when Iginla plays good. now with Wings who have solid 2nd line and 3rd that is able to chip in a goal once in a while - Z and D don't have to push as much. would any of them be playing this role if he played for a team that has single scoring line - that's possible. neither of them is a power forward type who is singlehandedly able to change the fortunes, though. anyway... I don't think stats are telling the story here. there's just too many factors in assessing how much the player is worth when the game is at stake. if I was NHL coach and had freedom of choice I'd play guys like Iginla, Modano, Lidstrom or (as much as I despise this guy and hate to admit it) Pronger who are able to play shift after shift and be a constant threat to the other team. not because of what their stats say but because they have the tools and experience to get the job done when the game is on the verge. do Datsyuk and Zetterberg belong to the same family? not yet, but they've shown they're capable of joining this elite club Precisely - you can make stats say just about anything you want. At the end of the day, the only stat that matters is W or L. The Wings seem to be able to put up the W's better than any other team. Hockey's a team game and you need a bunch of different pieces to fit the puzzle. There's also the intangible impact of players that can never be assessed. Is Player x better because player y is on his team, etc. When you see teams put together like Team Canada its interesting to see who's on the team and who isn't. Stevie doesn't make the 87 Canada Cup because the team was already deep in scoring centremen and he wasn't yet the strong defensive player he was to become. Other guys were better. Other components necessary to win needed to be on the roster. Iginla may score more clutch goals than Hank and so you want him on the ice late in a game with a 1 goal deficit. Hank's a better defensive player and so you want him on the ice opposite Iginla in the same game. But four forward lines of Iginlas or Zetterbergs likely won't win a Cup. You need all the different pieces not all the same pieces. The only excpetion to that rule is you could have 3 full d lines of Lidstrom. He's the best all round dman in the league. The combination of offence and defence is too good. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
