Mulletman
Registered User
- Feb 23, 2013
- 3,990
- 3,790
Right now Crosby is the best player this season and leads the League with 75 Points in 69 games. He also leads the League in point per game with 1.08. But when you compare Crosby to 40 year old Selanne in 2010-11, Teemu had 76 points after playing 69 games. That gave Teemu a point per game of 1.10 after 69 games. So that would indicate that 40 year old Teemu Selanne was better than any forward this season. That can't be right, can it?
Lets take a closer look. Crosby has 24+51=75 points in his 69 games. Selanne had 28+48=76 points in his first 69 games back in 10-11. Crosby has 24 secondary assists this season while Selanne had 19 secondary assists after 69 games. So you can't argue that Teemu picked up more secondary assists. Crosby has missed time this season to the mumps which has hurt his game, but Selanne missed more time to a groin injury back in 10-11. So you can't argue that the difference is injury either. But what about linemates you ask? Crosby has played mostly with Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and David Perron. While Selanne played with over the hill linemates like Saku Koivu and Jason Blake. So you really can't argue linemates either. And it's not possible to argue that Selanne got to play with Getzlaf on the powerplay, because Crosby has Malkin and Malkin is easily > Getzlaf. And you can't argue league scoring levels either since the 2010-11 season was the first season when scoring started to drop considerably, and the difference between 10-11 and 14-15 is negligible at best. But what about icetime? Crosby has an average icetime of 19:59 minutes per game this season. Selanne had an average icetime of 17:56 minutes per game back in 10-11. So Selanne scored more with 2 minutes less icetime.
So if my math is correct 40 year old Teemu Selanne was better than any forward this season. What's the conclusion of this? Is Selanne's 10-11 underrated? Or is every forward this season overrated? Should Selanne return for next season?
Lets take a closer look. Crosby has 24+51=75 points in his 69 games. Selanne had 28+48=76 points in his first 69 games back in 10-11. Crosby has 24 secondary assists this season while Selanne had 19 secondary assists after 69 games. So you can't argue that Teemu picked up more secondary assists. Crosby has missed time this season to the mumps which has hurt his game, but Selanne missed more time to a groin injury back in 10-11. So you can't argue that the difference is injury either. But what about linemates you ask? Crosby has played mostly with Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and David Perron. While Selanne played with over the hill linemates like Saku Koivu and Jason Blake. So you really can't argue linemates either. And it's not possible to argue that Selanne got to play with Getzlaf on the powerplay, because Crosby has Malkin and Malkin is easily > Getzlaf. And you can't argue league scoring levels either since the 2010-11 season was the first season when scoring started to drop considerably, and the difference between 10-11 and 14-15 is negligible at best. But what about icetime? Crosby has an average icetime of 19:59 minutes per game this season. Selanne had an average icetime of 17:56 minutes per game back in 10-11. So Selanne scored more with 2 minutes less icetime.
So if my math is correct 40 year old Teemu Selanne was better than any forward this season. What's the conclusion of this? Is Selanne's 10-11 underrated? Or is every forward this season overrated? Should Selanne return for next season?
