are projections accurate after 8 games? I'm going to say no...
I think he is responding to people who are over worrying and some even panicking after a couple losses about our young players not performing.
He knows 8 games of stats is not accurate projections and neither is panicking or detracting the young players after a 3pts in a 3.5 days 3 games road trip.
Math is fun.
You know it's only a 48 game season, right?
Might as well make some career predictions while you're at it.
Gagner 736 pts in next 8 seasons.
Hall 736 pts in next 8 seasons.
Eberle 576 pts in next 8 seasons.
Yaks 496 pts in next 8 seasons.
Nuge and Schutz 416 pts each in next 8 seasons.
Again. He is trying to put it in perspective that people can relax a bit as the young guys are doing okay. He is not saying they will end up with the exact projection points at the end of the season
If we can't use some projection like this, then we also can not use projection like looking at the standing. For examples, we are in 6th place in West right now but we are not allow to have playoff hope because we should not project a little bit after 1/6th of the season gone? And no one in Calgary should worry about their 4pts output and last place standings, because you cannot project that they will be last place at the end of the season?
There was no point in making projections which hold no meaning. Nobody is expecting that pts rate to be sustained. Lets note as well that we have two rookie NHL ringers busting out of the gate with unprecedented enthusiasm and who are largely wildcards to opponents who haven't seen them play.
Next, we know that the Oilers would hold a significant advantage over the first dozen games or so as most of their lineup had been already playing and had their first unit playing alongside each other all season. So yeah, the first unit forwards should be flying out of the gate. As it is they have 5 goals among them, Mostly through the superlative play of J Schultz who has sported a fantastic debut. Two number one draftpicks are snakebit when it comes to scoring goals. 2goals in 8 GP by the pair isn't cutting it. Especially in a stretch where we HAVE to be making hay.
1/6th of the season has gone, the young players have EARNED those offensive stats. Again his post was to let people see from a different perspective that the young players are doing okay.
It's reasonable to predict that some of them will not sustained the scoring pace. That's exactly the point. If one side of the people are saying they are over performing, where other side said they are not doing well at all and starting to over worry or even panicked.
For every argument one can use to hype them up the kids and bring them down, like your comments about them, another perspective can also be presented by saying this....
we have the youngest group of Top 6 forwards in the league having to face experienced NHL offensive superstars and seasoned NHL defensive stalwarts who has 3 or 4 times more experience. If opponents haven't seen our kids played before like you commented, then our kids have also never seen these opponents played before, as well as not having the experience to deal with these elite NHL level of offense, defense and goaltending in their lives ever before.
With the two perspectives, it is reasonable to say that for the first 8 games, they are doing not too bad, which was the point of Fourier's post imo.