[thymebalm]

Originally Posted by Justin Azevedo

this is one of the least-needed threads in the history of the internet.

Unnecessary. And you've obviously never heard of 4chan.

takeaways are inherently good, but the situation which leads to them is bad. this is the reason guys like datsyuk and crosby have the most giveaways in the league - it's because they always have the puck on their stick. if a guy has a lot of takeaways, it suggests that most of the time when he's on the ice he's chasing the puck, not possessing it.

This is not true. It's kind of true. sometimes. It was Dion Phaneuf (53) that had the most giveaways this season. Thorton (42) led for forwards. The thing about Datsyuk and Crosby is that they have positive differentials between there GwA and TkA.

This season Jonathan Toews and Datysuk led the league with 56 takeaways. Not players I would define as always "chasing the puck". More like players I would define as "always having the puck on their stick". Toews had just 15 giveaways. So does that mean he must have not had the puck as much?

hits, takeaways, giveaways and blocks are very very subjective. they fluctuate by a huge margin rink to rink as there is no official definition for what constitutes a block, hit, etc.

Yea, but the thing is, every team plays in every building and every team benefits and suffers from how different it is rink to rink. And those are the stats, they are official NHL stats.

And I think everyone here knows exactly what a blocked shot is. It's a pretty solid statistic. The analysts keep very close track and always replay shot blocks. It's really not that subjective.

more pims does not make a player more gritty or better in any way. the only thing penalties accomplish is hurting the team.

PIMS are bad, mmkay. No argument here. No one ever called Rene Bourque gritty because of his penalty minutes.

although i'm sure all of these points will be missed, this horrific, illogical attempt at the evaluation of players necessitated a response.

This is the kicker. First you insult the OP for taking the time to compile and analyse some data for us to mull over in the summer months.

Then you insult the entire populous of the board by assuming no one here is as smart as you to see how flawed his analyst might or might not be.

Then you use bogus data to deflate someones hard work.

Justin, you just lost yourself a reader at Flamesnation. Grow up.