diceman934
Help is on the way.
Or perhaps I have a case I can make where I don't need to resort to insults?
First of all. Watching the game means you put your faith in your cognitive ability, your eye test, which is highly biased and not to mention subjective. Understanding that is key to evaluation.
Utilization is not a better indicator of quality than actual performance, as it depends on a lot of factors. That should be obvious especially when the subject is Rielly, who has not been utilized on the PP. We know that's not indicative of his abilities there.
Nevertheless, Babcock has been very clear that he does not want Gardiner and Rielly on the same pairing as he wants them on two different pairings to push possession. So that's why Gardiner is on the second pairing.
I really don't want to go into the whole "Rielly on his off-side" again, I have half a dozen posts on the subject already. But sure, it's a factor.
Jake played almost exactly as much as Dion, and has had his role increase with Dion's departure. And Hunwick is tied to Rielly's hip, I hope everyone understands the reason for this isn't that he's our second best D-man.
Gardiner being an offensive D-man has never been very accurate. People label any D-man who can skate as that, regardless of other qualities. Gardiner is a transition D-man whose biggest impact on the game is defensively. That he can provide 30 points as well with PP time is a bonus.
QoC has a insignificant effect over the course of a season. Rielly will end up playing against slightly tougher opposition at season's end. Changes in QoC almost never results in any big statistical effect, because the differences are so small.
You then mention Gardiner having "obscenely high ZS%". This is especially funny as Gardiner has slightly above average ZS, not to mention that it's worth as a contextual factor is highly questioned.
So what Rielly has on Gardiner is 1 minute more ES time, playing PK while being one of our worse performers there, and a bit better ES production.
Gardiner has much better possession driving numbers and much better defensive numbers, by pretty much any standard and including numbers that take QoC and ZS% into account.
I'm sure that in a year, Rielly has improved enough on the PK for it to be a factor in his favor, and has continued to evolve enough that the things in his favor weigh up squarely with everything in Gardiner's favor, but right now any kind of statistical analysis will favor Gardiner. And that's no slight to Rielly at all, whom I'm very excited for. That he is closing in on Gardiner at the tender age of 21 is amazing.
Didn't want to betray my dripping irony to anyone who wasn't paying attention
Really like when I did not agree with your points.....I could not read?
The comparison needs context as they are both being used differently and not comparable without context.
QOC, Zone starts, playing your weakside, playing partner and the PK, less PP and more points, vs better zone starts, weaker competition, lots of PP time and better playing partner and less points.