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calfan

New Statistic - The Clutch Factor

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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.

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