Quote:
Originally Posted by BigErnSalute_16
He wasn't cherry picking stats just because it wasn't a usual number like top 10, 15, or 20? those are technically just as arbitrary when the point he was making was that LA is the only team with good numbers who aren't living up to potential.
I for one would like to know the exact number when making a point like that as opposed to cutting it off at 10 because that would be a less accurate stat
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Well, obviously there's no rule that objectively defines what is cherrypicking and what is not. To me, any time you're specifically looking for the cutoff spot where your argument looks the strongest, you are cherrypicking.
The reason why using a more typical cutoff point like 10 teams is probably not as cherrypicky (IMO) is because while equally arbitrary, the decision to pick that specific point isn't (hopefully) based on what makes that particular set of data most loudly say what you want. In fact a person should preferably FIRST pick a comparison group / cutoff point and THEN look at how the data lines up, not the other way around.
That said, the NHL allows for so many "natural" cutoff points that I think people should generally be very sceptical when they hear any argument in the form of "this is true for most teams above/below this cutoff point". In fact, preferably there should always be a clear reason why the comparison group is what it is, and that reason should be directly related to the point someone is trying to make.
To me personally, if you really want to argue that a stat is relevant in predicting the outcome of the Flames-Jets series, you really should be looking at "how often does the regular season leader in this stat win their series". However since this would likely require a lot more work, I don't hold it against Bingo that he didn't do that.
(That said, since it wouldn't be THAT much work, if corsi is indeed a relevant indicator of who wins a playoff series, that information should already be available in the internet somewhere.)