I think there's a difference between normalize and minimize, and I think often Perry's 2010-11 is subjected to the latter. At the end of October, his pace would have put him at 7th in goals and 7th in points. By the end of December, his pace would have put him at 5th in goals and 5th in points. I think it gets defined as a two-month sample when from the very start, it was never going to be anything less than a 1st Team All-Star selection like he had in 2013-14.
He turned on the jets in February and March (21 goals, 38 points in 25 games) to boost a non-playoff team into having home-ice advantage, yes, but would there be any effort to "normalize" his season if he had a hot streak in October and November instead? Probably not, because we're proposing an alternate version of events where Steven Stamkos - who had a Perry-esque hot streak in October and November (21 goals, 40 points in 25 games) - scores at least 6 more goals and 8 more points to overtake Perry.
Even the thought experiment where Perry finishes 3rd in goals is a little far fetched. That's 8 less - 16% of his total.
my point with that thought experiment was not to take away, or as you say minimize, perry's career year. the point was to bring it a little closer to what we'd imagine a career year for a player like him would look like, then (obviously, i thought) give him back those achievements and accolades and think about that gap.
as you say, he was 7th in october, 5th in december. yes, that is still a career year for perry (basically even with his '14 season, as you suggest), even without that crazy streak. so i think we're saying exactly the same thing, or interpreting the data in exactly the same way: there is a "normal" career year for perry, which he already was having, and then there is an improbable, anomalous career year for perry, which his mid-february to mid-april streak turned his season into.
to respond to your other points in order, i think a perry who doesn't win the rocket probably also isn't first team all-star. but then, all my cards on the table, then and now i firmly believe that the rightful hart winner that season was martin st. louis, so that's my first team all-star RW as well. even when stamkos almost completely dried up, MSL was still scoring at the same rate.
if perry had the hot streak in october/november instead of february/march? daniel sedin probably wins the hart trophy. i've pointed out many times that guys who get on hot streaks at the end of the season, especially when they either overtake the season-long leader for the art ross or come very close to it, win hart trophies. forsberg in '03, thornton in '06, henrik sedin in '10. you could also include '02 theodore, though obviously there was no scoring race to challenge for in that case. (the exceptions to that rule? when the player's team doesn't make the playoffs; see, '13 MSL, '15 jamie benn.) in the alternate scenario where perry scores out of his mind early on, then "only" scores at a slightly above a point/game pace the rest of the way, daniel sedin "catches" him at the end of the year, while of course also leading the league's best team to the #1 offense, #1 powerplay, and running away with the presidents trophy.
as for stamkos, i don't think it's fair to say that early-season stamkos had a "perry-esque hot streak." if anything, more fair to call what perry did a "stamkos-esque hot streak," considering that for perry that was a once-in-a-career streak, whereas stamkos has shown himself to be capable of that level of scoring many times in his career, including, well, right now.
it's a minor point in the grand scheme of things, but i'll repeat that stamkos scored
5 goals and 19 points in his last
28 games of that season (after potting 40 goals in his first 54 games). at no other time in stamkos' career other than his rookie season and right now (as he is averaging 1.5 assists a game) has he ever scored less than a goal every other game. even at a conservative pace, we would give him 14 goals in those last 28 games. add the extra nine goals to his season total and he wins the rocket with 54 goals.
and to your last point, if you take away the hot streak from february to the end of the season, perry has 25 goals, 26 assists, 51 points, 52 games. basically, a goal every other game, and a point a game. which, again, basically equals his second best season. so if we "normalize" the hot streak (25 goals, 22 assists, 47 points in 30 games), we're shaving off ten goals. that leaves him at 40, below daniel sedin and ryan kesler for fourth. okay, it's not third, but there is no possible third this year.
