I have studied this subject thoroughly. What really changed things for San José that season was two things. First, they won more games, and allowed far less goals (almost one less per game), when Larionov played than when he was injured. Second, the arrival of Ulf Dahlen had a considerably positive effect on the goal scoring, with him also bringing new life to the production of Todd Elik.
Without Larionov and Dahlen, San José's results were as poor as the previous season. With Larionov, they become slightly above average. And with Dahlen arriving, they become one of the best teams.
Now I don't want people to jump to conclusions, or to put words into my mouth. It is fairly natural that average - or above average - players has that kind of impact. It does not have to be an argument against Makarov, who did produce even without Larionov, even though his +/- got quite negative when not having him around. When both Larionov and Makarov played, their +/- was about equally good, both being significantly +. However, it's apparent that the aging Makarov on his own couldn't turn the team around. (But there have been many cases of good players who have played for bad teams. Some Quebec players, like Goulet, comes to mind.)
To try to be clear: in this case - talking regular season 1993-94 - I don't think a case for Makarov can be done. Considering his numbers, I don't think a case can be done against him either.
I think Irbe had much lower GA than the backup goalie Waite. I don't remember how Irbe games coincided with Larionov games, but that should also be looked at. Edit: Now I have looked, and Irbe played 21.7 out of 24 games (started 22 of them) when Larionov was injured, so it seems Larionov really did make a difference.
Another valueble player on the team was Ozolinsh, having gone from age 20 to age 21. Regarding Jeff Norton, I'm not sure what to say.
Anyway, I don't see Makarov being the key reason for San José allowing fewer goals. Rather it would be Larionov, or possibly the combination of having both playing together, that made the numbers go down. Offensively, Makarov did contribute, but even with him and Larionov (and Elik, Falloon, Ozolinsh, etc), it was the arrival of Dahlen that made a significant increase in goal production.
My computer is in a bad shape, getting out of memory and timeout problems, when I try to run my program for handling this stat, so I cannot go more into details now. I will also add that this is a tricky thing to analyze, with lots of factors working together (starting goalie, opposing goalie, other injuries, opponent team injuries, things overlapping, etc). What I write here is "preliminary". That is, what at first deeper glances seems to be the pattern. Further, deeper looks might alter that.
I haven't analyzed the playoffs. As it seems, the important players mentioned were able to play all games. The team did well. Larionov now emerged(?) as the by far leading scorer on the team with 18 pts in 14 games, with a quartet of teammates tying for 2nd on team with 10 pts.
It's hard for me to not get affected by the more or less "bullying" replies my posts tends to get. If anyone for a change have anything positive or encouraging to say, you are welcome to do it.
