Luck seems to play a bigger part in Hockey than any other sport. Baseball probably right there too. How often do you see goals off defensemen's shin pads or skates go in or a shot blocker tipping it past his goalie? How often does a pass get missed because it bounces due to bad ice? I would say this makes winning in hockey as a Fav a bit harder
Injuries are a bigger part in hockey too. Cav vs GSW in NBA finals as expected and neither team is missing a player. Letang, Ry Jo, Fiala, Bonino all key players out
3rd part and most important is the impact of star players. Not only the time on the floor but the of plays that get called for them. Cleveland really could run every play for an entire game through Irving and James and it would make sense and increase chances to win. Hockey shadowing a star player can slow that player up and in Basketball if you trap a star player it usually leads to wide open shots for other players and good teams have average players that are deadly when open
The other factor is in Hockey we allow lessor players who just can't keep up with our elite players cheat, hook, hold, cross check, interfere with our star players at no cost to there team. Basically we call this a skill for our average players to close the gap in talent vs our elite players
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