Is Benn's Art Ross Win The Weakest Since The 1967 Expansion?

[Big Phil]

On the flip side, how do you measure strong Art Ross winning seasons?

Look at your competition. Not all Art Rosses are created equal. Lemieux in 1993 had a ton of competition at the top. Lots of guys in their primes, lots of guys healthy, lots of guys who had their best year that season. A more busy time at the top of the scoring race is what you are looking for. For example 2018 wasn't bad when it comes to this. Not the best, but not the worst either. Some guys had some pretty good seasons and it wasn't as if McDavid was leading the NHL all year. He didn't get ahead until about 10 games left.

Another strong year you might ask? 1975 comes to mind. 1976 as well. 1988, 1996, ones like that. Lots of players having great years.

 

[Big Phil]

Benn's Art Ross year was weak, for sure. I'll get to that in a minute, but can we first give the guy credit for his fantastic finish? He had 10 points in his last 3 games and in order to tie Tavares for the scoring title (Benn won based on more goals) he got a secondary assist with 9 seconds left in the game on the final game. A game he got a hat trick in. So props to him there. Players always say they never care about individual awards, but to think Tavares was 9 seconds away from a major award.

He finished a distant 9th in Hart voting because his Stars didn't make the playoffs so in a way Benn had that luxury of having nothing to lose. But keep in mind, he did have a good year prior to this and probably his best one right after. So it isn't as if 2015 is a fluke.

But the list of scorers is a bit depressing. 5 had 80 points. That's it. We were missing players with peak years that we usually have. It's funny though, Crosby and Ovechkin finished 3rd and 4th in scoring in a league where they may have said isn't "theirs" anymore. But yeah, I don't know, just a bland year overall. 2014, 2015 and 2016 were specifically very uneventful regular seasons with little intrigue.

 

[The Panther]

Man, there's something wrong with the NHL when only five players get 80 points. It'd be like if only five MLBers got 30 home runs.

Hockey is just more at the whims of technology than other major sports.

 

[Czech Your Math]

Man, there's something wrong with the NHL when only five players get 80 points. It'd be like if only five MLBers got 30 home runs.

Hockey is just more at the whims of technology than other major sports.

This happened as recently as 1988 and was not uncommon before 1977.

 

[ESH]

I think what makes Benn’s Art Ross even more weak is the fact that he never actually led the league in scoring until he won it on the final day.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

gonna assume this is a satire fail.

St Louis was 1.25 PPG in 2013
Benn was 1.06 PPG

Look at the poster

It's because Crosby was injured

 

[EpochLink]

Man, there's something wrong with the NHL when only five players get 80 points. It'd be like if only five MLBers got 30 home runs.

Hockey is just more at the whims of technology than other major sports.

The 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers had 4 players hit 30+ home runs that season.

 

[The Panther]

The 1977 Los Angeles Dodgers had 4 players hit 30+ home runs that season.

Wow, that's like the mid-80s' Oilers with four 100-point scorers, or the early-90s' Pens.

Still, who wants to regularly watch teams with a bunch of great players going at it, when we now get to watch four-line teams of puck-cycling grunts in the Finals??