Its funny when people argue about statistics.
Thing is...there are two kinds of them but they are treated as equal. They are not.
Objective vs subjective.
Hockey has a boat load of subjective, hence why they are so truly flawed.
I think the single biggest example of this (on the Flames anyhow) is the giveaway/takeaway column as well as the hit column which are so ridiculously flwaed its painful when used to make an argument.
Johnny Gaudreau is the single biggest offensive talent this club has. I dont think that is disputable.This is not a shot at him per se, but a glaring example.
In one game against the Canucks a couple weeks ago....the PP was a complete mess with the bump-back thing happening every single time JG was out there. I think we remember well how many times JG then proceeded to skate right into one of the players forming a wall along the blueline. Happened 3 times straight on one particular man advantage but at least 6 times over the course of that one game. Then there were his infamous gain the zone and button hook in an attempt to find the trailer. In that game alone he gave the puck to the Canucks a minimum of 12 times. Particularly bad game for him to be sure, but again exemplifies how flawed this stuff can be.
When i was looking at the stats following the game i specifically wanted to see how bad it really was.
Johnny was "credited" with one take-away that game which...ok.
Johnny was charged with....ZERO giveaways that same game which was so absurd i literally laughed out loud to myself.
Now this is something he does, literally, every single game he plays. Its part of the game plan for him to be the puck carrier through the neutral zone and then use his hockey sense to determine whether to chip it in and start a chase or hold it and pass to an open player, usually someone coming late. With that strategy there are always going to be times it gets turned over...there is another team out there that wants the puck too.
So it should be no surprise that JG would have a large number of gveaways.
Except he doesn't.
The off-ice guys around the Canadian division this are telling us that Gaudreau has only coughed up the puck to an opposition player....14 times.
14.
In 20 games.
It is so laughable its hard to find a word how inaccurate that is.
So now you have to have a bit of a jaundiced eye in regards to anything that is determined by a human when it comes to these type of stats. Hits is the other one that really stands out when you dig in to them. I remember about 7 years ago (could be longer too...my memory...)or so that at one point in the season the Florida Panthers had something like 5 guys among the top 10 in the league in that department. Turns out that off ic crew were counting "hits" at nearly double the rate than that of whoever was 2nd in that department. It made all of it irrelevant.
So now you start to rely on a stat that has humans counting shot "attempts" among others.....and how can it be in anyway reliable as an indicator of anything? Im guessing if there is way and desire to do so...you would see wild fluctuations from building to building that are entered as have happened. Which ones are accurate? Which ones are not? A shot attempt to you may very well not be one to me.
Subjectivity is something that has to be accounted for in these stats and dare i say is in no way happening.
Thats just a couple examples.
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