Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashasx
How are you concluding this?
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Average team gets roughly 250 power plays a season.
Average team scores about 50ish goals a year. A 5 goal swing can put a team from 15th to top ten or bottom ten. A ten goal swing is massive.
So it doesn't take much random chance to affect the outcomes.
If PPs were 100% skill based then Pittsburgh/Washington would finish 1st every single season.
I mean certain teams do well over stretches of time. Like the Capitals. It's clear that skill is important. Ovechkin for instance is pretty much the only guy in the league that can beat goalies clean with a long range wrister in today's game. That has tremendous value.
But you can look at a team like San Jose. They've had basically the same top players for years. So lots of chemistry, and talent, and their PP fluctuates wildly from one year to the next.
I mean all NHL teams know what each other are doing. They essentially all play the same systems. Anyone can break down Washington's PP on tape easily, but they can't copy it because they don't have Ovechkin.
So what's a PP coach realistically going to do?