Top ten points/game finishes for selected players:
Turgeon-5
LaFontaine-3
Sundin-1
Kariya-3
Hawerchuk-2
Robitaille-3
Goulet-5
Nicholls-2
Bure-4
Datsyuk-3
Gilmour-3
Francis-4
Nieuwendyk-0
Roenick-2
Alfredsson-3
Hossa-2
Shanahan-0
Modano-1
Tkachuk-1.
Recchi-3
My Best-Carey
And to address the posts regarding his lack of leadership, defense, etc., I'll reiterate what I posted a couple years ago:
As much as it may be obvious to some that Turgeon lacked all of those things, he was noted for his defense, hard work, character, and leadership at various times in his career.
E.g.,
Montreal Gazette, October 6, 1988:
"He's going to be a star in this league," Sator said yesterday. "
He worked very hard - both on and off the ice during the off-season. He has one more year of maturation and his command of English is much better now.
"He's got a year under his belt and
he's grown into a leadership role. I think he's going to have a banner year this season."
"He's just a tremendous athlete and a
tremendous competitor," Sator said.
Edmonton Journal, Feb 22, 1990:
"He's a very talented hockey player," said linemate Dave Andreychuk, who had helpers on both of Turgeon's goals. "He does things with the puck we just shake our heads at."
"People can see he's got great offensive skills. I know that from playing against him," said blueliner Doug Bodger, a former Pittsburgh Penguin.
"We call him Sneaky Pierre the way he goes out there and hides, but
he leads out on the ice in other ways.
"He's playing with confidence.
He's playing like a leader."
"He's
putting in the work and getting back into the defensive end of the game," Andreychuk said.
"You can really see that from the first year. He knows he has to
work hard and he's doing it night after night."
Montreal Gazette (Michael Farber), April 7, 1990:
"Turgeon is one of those players who makes everyone around him better."
Vancouver Sun, March 20, 1993
"He's not an outspoken guy. But in his own way,
he's become a leader," coach Al Arbour, who has had some great ones, said Friday. "He's a silent leader.
"He has progressed and he's going to keep progressing.
Everything we've asked him to do, he's done."
"He's a real team guy," Islander captain Patrick Flatley said. "He's still young, but he's starting to assume a
leadership role. Even last year to this year he's taken on more of a leadership role, and I think that progression will continue."
Canadian Press, May 2, 1996 (quoting Tremblay):
"Pierre Turgeon is a great captain. Twice he took the whole team out for dinner on the road. When someone was having trouble, he would go talk to the player. I call that good leadership."
Edmonton Journal, Nov 16, 1999
"It was a great effort," Quenneville said. "He beat the guy to the icing and pretty much got the job done on a second and third effort. It's nice to see him produce again, and
he continues to provide a lot of determination."
"He's been great all year, and he's fun to watch out there," McAlpine said. "He's
working hard, and he's so skilled. He's been big for us."
Globe and Mail, Nov. 18, 1999:
Simply put, there's an
edge to Turgeon's game now, one that emerged during the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring.
"Yeah, I think his play, particularly in that Phoenix series, showed a lot more
leadership," said Quenneville
National Post, Jan 15, 2000:
On the eve of last year's NHL playoffs Turgeon asked for an audience with Blues coach Joel Quenneville. He told Quenneville that he wanted more responsibility, to be the guy on the ice in the last minute of the period or last minute of the game, to be the go-to guy.
"It showed that he felt that he had more to offer. And he delivered," Quenville said.
Midway through the Blues' first-round playoff series against the tough Phoenix Coyotes, Turgeon began to reinvent himself in front of his teammates' eyes.
He played tough along the boards. He took the big hits and, after being down 3-1 in the series, the Blues won the series in a heart- stopping seventh game in which Turgeon scored in overtime.
Turgeon continued his fine play in the next round against Dallas. He took a brutal slash from Pat Verbeek and kept the Blues alive in the series with critical playmaking. He added five more points (he had 13 in total), including an overtime winner in Game 4. If not for mediocre goaltending from Grant Fuhr, the Blues may well have upended the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
"He was determined to make the team win," Quenneville said. "That's a sign of the elite players."
You could always count on the points, said Quenneville, "but he raised his game to a higher level."
That brand of play did not disappear with the playoffs. Turgeon scored a handful of goals in one of the first training-camp scrimmages and has not backed off since. He has consistently been in the top three or four scorers this season and will return to the NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 6 in Toronto, his fifth all-star appearance.
His 23 goals and 55 points leads the Blues and marks the 12th consecutive season with at least 20 goals.
More significantly, the 30-year-old continues to play the important minutes of St. Louis games. Where he was sometimes hidden from other team's top lines earlier in his career, he is now matched against them. He is a central figure on the power play, of course, but he also kills penalties. He has answered his detractors while becoming a complete player.
I am sure there are also articles out there that say he wasn't a complete player., but I present the examples above to illustrate that there are a lot of opinions out there.
Moving beyond anecdote, is there any real evidence that he was or wasn't a good defensive player? I don't think any advanced stats from his era are readily available, so the best data available might be goals allowed when on the ice.
Black Gold Extractor had a thread on this a week or so ago.
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=2167377&highlight=
He compared non-PP GA per game for elite scoring forwards (defined as forwards who had top-12 qualifying points per game seasons since expansion).
42 players had at least five top-12 PPG seasons since expansion. Of those 42, Turgeon ranked 6th best in (non PP) goals allowed. This metric compared goals allowed per game by an elite forward in a given season to goals allowed per game by other elite forwards during that season, so league scoring levels are already taken into account. Turgeon was consistently on the ice for fewer goals against per game than other elite scoring forwards.
So he wasn't just a point accumulator. He also prevented goals against at a rate better than the vast majority of other elite scoring forwards.
