Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
Maybe I'm missing something here. My reference shows that goals per game per team was 3.14 in 1995-96. That's not in the dead puck era of low goal scoring. If you're saying that Lemieux scored all these point totals in 95-96 as a slight against Crosby then you're argument does not make sense. Because goals per game per team and lower now than in that season which was 2.74 last season.
Put in context, that's 6.28 goals per game to 5.28. That's a goal a game higher than what Crosby is playing in right now.
Over 82 games assuming say 2.7 points awarded per goal that's an additional 110 points awarded per team in 95-96 as opposed to now.
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I called 1996 part of the Dead Puck Era because it was part of the Dead Puck Era. It's not an exact science, but far more people believe it started prior to 1996 than after it, thanks in large part to Lemaire and the Devils winning the Cup in 1995 playing the trap. I've tried to be pretty careful to say that 1996 was comparable to 2006 in goal scoring, it was, it's fact. It's not a slight against Crosby, it's an argument to the "Lemieux couldn't beat today's goalies and never would put up points in today's low scoring league" he beat the best goalies in the world in 1996, in the very defensive systems of Lemaire and Bowman. He put up 161 points in 70 games, after he had missed the entire previous season because of back surgery and defeating Hodgkin's a bit before that. He was well past his prime, yet he was still putting up points that I feel many people believe he only put up in the 80s. An in his prime Lemieux would have put up crazy numbers in any era. If you want to claim there's a new Dead Puck Era, that's more than fair, still Crosby's best season came when scoring was up in 2007 thanks to concussions.
Okay sure, so maybe a 190 points pace in 1996 would only be about 175 points in 2014, still would make him the best player in the world by a large margin. And if 1996 competition was so easy, look back at who I listed, look at those rosters, look at the style of play that was becoming the normal, calling players from 1996 weak compared today is an insult to all the greats like Sakic, Hasek, Bourque and Lidstrom.