daver
Registered User
I am big fan of OV vs Crosby debate and stats comparisons.
So its a common knowledge that OV trumps Crosby in goals:
Goals 705 to 462, or 0.61 vs 0.47 goals per game
And Crosby dominates in secondary and primary assists:
Primary 500 to 351, or 0.52 vs 0.31 primary assists per game
Secondary 301 to 219, or 0.31 vs 0.19 secondary assists per game
What is surprising is that OV dominates in "beyond secondary assists" or "no points awarded plays", whatever you call it.
Those could be calculated as team's goals fared while player is on ice minus player's points (TGF - P in hockey-reference.com terms).
So it is effectively sum of A3+A4+NoAssist. (There are realistically four teammates who could have touched the puck before a goal).
OV leads by 552 to 361, or 0.48 to 0.37 per game in those.
Unfortunately NHL does not track assists beyond secondary and it is not clear how many NoAssists vs A3+A4 are there.
For completeness here are team's goals fared stats where it is mixed result:
OV leads in absolute numbers: 1828 to 1624 TGF and Crosby is ahead in per game stats 1.65 vs 1.59
So what do we learn from it, OV has better teammates on average throughout his career?
Backstrom is good player but not known for his goal scoring with only one 30 goals campaign, Semin with two 30 goals and one 40 goals campaigns, Green.
On the other hand Crosby had Kunitz with three 30 goals campaign, Guntzel with 40 goals, Malkin on PP and in two-headed monster situations, Letang.
Or is it something else like OV drawing more coverage, opening up space, where teammates have more opportunities to score where OV is not directly involved.
All stats from hockey-reference.com
First of all, your starting stat should be the per game stat of Crosby at 1.65 vs OV at 1.59. Actually your starting stat should be Net Goals Fared which includes the goals against for each player which would be even more in Crosby's favour.
Then the per game stat which would highlight the idea of their different contributions to the offensive side of things. Then we would take away their actual production to come up with......wait what? Crosby is going to be effectively penalized for being the more productive player? The fact that OV contributes less %-wise to his four other teammates' productivity than Crosby does is somehow a positive for OV?
Anyways, now we have the all telling OV 0.48 per game to Crosby 0.37 per game and you think this isn't a clear indicator that OV has better linemates?
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