no, this is true... they are meant for a longer view, thats for sure
but that being said, if you have watched the games, it is VERY obvious that kruger is playing the RNH line against the other teams best line every game and that the 2nd line is getting a chance against weaker opposition... it's clear as day
The numbers I quoted were not Qual Comp or any of the variants of +/- related stats. Those stats are distorted by small sample sizes. The stats I quoted are %-ages of ES time played against each player so far. As such they give a very significant picture of the players each line is facing.
In the case of the first line they have played 2 games out of 8 against SJ. As a rough estimate that means about 25% of the ES numbers come from the games against SJ. This means that when the first line was on the ice at ES they were playing against Vlasic and Stuart, SJ top shutdown pair, about 60% of the time and against Thorton/Marleau/Pavelski about 53% of the time.
If you look at it the other way around Vlasic and Stuart have been assigned to the RNH line more than any other set of players. The Thorton line faced RNH's line about 16% of the time at ES. So they drew that mathcup almost 60% of the time that they were at ES vs the Oilers.
I also looked at OEL. He played 10% of his ES time this year against the RNH line. Given that he has only played about 13% of his time at ES vs the Oilers this means that he pretty much saw that line the whole game against Pheonix. The same holds for Colorado's top line and best defencemen as well as for JayBo.
Again, none of this is distroted by sample size. It is a straight forward refelction of who is playing against who.