Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
To me, this supports the idea that 'the book is out on how to beat Johnny and the Flames', with the notion that coaching staff would focus most energy on their divisional foes (most frequent opponents, biggest impact on standings, and most likely playoff opponents). One would expect that Central Division teams should be able to achieve the same success against us...I don't have a particular explanation...perhaps they have simply focused more attention on California teams?
I think there are lots of other possible inferences. One that comes to mind is that if/when Johnny becomes aware of this statistical distinction, does it make him less likely to re-sign (ie. in his mind he could be a consistent 1.2 ppg player playing in another division)? Without turning this solely into a trade Johnny thread, I think this is definitely an interesting data point that supports seriously exploring the idea.
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If the Pacific teams have more success against johnny because they focus on him due to playing him more frequently, would the same become true if he switched divisions? Plus the Pacific already has this knowledge, so it would be two divisions that shut him down.
In any event, I don't believe in this theory. Teams aren't playing in a vacuum, teams on other divisions would have the same knowledge as teams in the Pacific have.