Quote:
Originally Posted by JiriHrdina
Hits are not measured consistently and a poor gauge for the overall physicality of a player. And plus minus is even more useless
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Not only that but if anyone actually thinks that the Pens top 3 comes close to the Flames top 3, well, I have to straight up question their hockey knowledge on any topic. Letang is a great player but there isn't a gap with Brodie, just different styles. Brodie might hit and score less but he is elite defensively, Letang would never be described as such. Gio and Hamilton are better players than any of Cole, Lovejoy, Daley, Dumoulin or Maatta. I think we will find that our top 3 will look much better under a structured coach than the 'system' employed under the last few years. I have no doubt that Pittsbugh's D would look far worse under a Hartley system, with the exception of Letang.
A better coach than Hartley should be able to wrangle better results out of our group next year, though probably not offensively. Maybe we should wait until a coach with a grasp of NHL defensive systems before we compare them to the Stanley Cup champions?
The fact that the Flames top 3 hits less than the Pens top 3 is extra meaningless, even for Ricardo. We are talking about an extra 2-4 combined hits per game difference between the Flames top guys and the Penguins. Give me a break, that is statistically insignificant even if hits were tracked accurately. There are some great peices on the backend in Calgary, to discount them because of how often they hit or their +/- is such a hilariously basic way of evaluating players.