Revisionist history? The way I'm looking at it, the stats show that a higher percentage of his 5on5 assists are coming from secondary assists than previous seasons.
..........A1/60 : A2/60
14/15.......65 : .74
13/14.......75 : .40
12/13.......91 : .33
11/12.......93 : .59
10/11......1.16 : .63
Clearly the amount of primary assists per 60min of ice time has dropped in each of the last 5 seasons, while his secondary assists have increased in each of the last 3.
But this is beside the point, my analysis of Kopitar's play is mostly qualitative. He rarely generates scoring chances for himself or his teammates. It's unacceptable for a number 1 center, and too many of his points are coincidental.
I don't want to sound like I'm unappreciative of him. I've often defended him and felt like those criticizing him we're looking at the grass as being greener on the other side. I'm just frustrated with him, and the organizations' emphasis on his defensive play. Kopitar's skill set is better geared towards offense. I don't think we're getting the most out of him.
Yet those rates are still the highest on the team. That's my point. If you're comparing him to himself vs. him to others, it's kind of like the discussion about how he's getting points on the pp vs. instead of 5v5--who cares where it's coming from if it gets there? Last year this board was going "Oh man, Kopi's generating 5v5 but he's garbage on the PP," now it's "Kopi's got PP points but sucks 5v5." There's only so many points to go around. And I can think of several plays in recent history where Kopi only got a second assist yet was THE major force in the play happening, that's the major issue I have with it. The suggestion is that he's simply a passenger getting points, but he's still the guy lugging the puck through the neutral zone vs. each opponents top checkers and such.
I generally disagree that he's not generating, but I do agree with your last point.
Finally, those singing Carter's praises, I agree and I think he's put himself in a position to succeed through his work ethic as well--but let's be honest and say he's ALSO doing as good as he's doing because of the emphasis on Kopitar. If a team loads up on the 70s instead of Kopitar and Gaborik, watch out. Carter might be our best scoring center but it's not because he's actually
better than Kopitar, it's because he gets to play against Oduya/Shaw instead of Toews/Keith, Couture/Braun instead of Thornton/Vlasic, B. Richards (lol)/Staal instead of Stepan/McDonagh (last year's version), Granlund(LOL)/Spurgeon instead of Koivu/Sutter, and so on.
I just think he's getting an absolutely raw deal on this board and look at our record without him in the lineup over the years to see the ripple effect of what happens without. It's okay to be critical, but some of this discourse is frankly embarrassing.
My bad. I was kinda thinking that when you spelled his name wrong.
