Bob Mayville writes...
>I agree with Mike that there are discrepancies with stat keeping.
>
>Another scenario for giving assists:
>
> Player A1 passes to A2. A2 and A3 pass twice between them with A2
scoring
>the goal. The reverse sequence of control is: A2, A3, A2, A1. I've seen
the
>play scored as A2 from A3, but I've also seen A2 from A3 AND A1.
>
> My question: is there a point when A1 should never be considered for
an
>assist? If A2 and A3 pass four times?
>
> My understanding was that the scoring should reflect the last 3
INSTANCES
>of control (A2, A3, A2) with repeats deleted. Apparently, this is
sometimes the
>case. Other times, the last 3 PLAYERS with control (A2, A3, A1) will be
>credited.
>
>What's everybody think?
Well, I have a story. Many people who know me have heard me bitch endlessly
about the following, but I don't think I've ever posted it to Hockey-L. In
fact, I avoided it because it was nothing more than a bitch, but it now
relates to Bob's comments above. (I'll attempt to keep the complaints and
insinuating comments to a minimum.)
On the final weekend of the 1992-93 CCHA regular season, Michigan State's
Bryan Smolinski went into the Saturday game with a 2 point lead on
Michigan's Mark Ouimet in the CCHA scoring race. MSU was hosting Notre Dame
and UM was at Ohio State. In the second period of the MSU-ND game, the
Spartan goaltender cleared the puck from behind his net, past everyone and
out of the zone. The puck was headed toward a ND player in the neutral
zone, but he was being bothered by Smolinski and the puck went untouched
through both of them. It was picked up by MSU's Brian Clifford who was
racing up the right side with Rem Murray to the left on what was now a
2-on-1 MSU break. In the ND zone, Clifford passed to Murray who tipped it
back to Clifford who easily found the half-empty net for a pretty
give-and-go goal. The scoring? Clifford from Murray.
At the start of the third period, a scoring change was announced as Clifford
from Murray and Smolinski. Smoke never touched the puck, and it was a
give-and-go between Clifford and Murray, but he did get an assist. Hence,
the relevance to our stat discussion. As Arthur pointed out, one need not
touch the puck to receive and assist. Also, it is apparent that Clifford's
possession of the puck prior to the pass to Murray and subsequent return
pass for the goal didn't negate Smolinski from being credited with an
assist.
Delete now if you want to ignore the bitch. :-)
Smoke recorded another point in the third and Ouimet has three points at
OSU, so Smolinski wins the scoring title by a single point, 51-50. I had
the MSU game on tape, and as a die-hard UM fan, I was outraged that Smoke
received an assist on the Clifford goal. Honestly, I seriously questioned
the integrity of the SIDs...I assumed that the MSU SID changed the scoring
summary and that the ND SID agreed to it. I called the CCHA office to moan,
and as usual my assumptions were incorrect. The SIDs did not change the
scoring, it was done by request of one of the captains. Smolinski was the
MSU co-captain at the time. Of course, at this point, I was really steamed
because it appeared that Smoke, or one of his teammates, WAS deliberately
trying to pad his point total. Assists are determined by the teams (usually
SIDs) involved, so the CCHA would not overturn the scoring. (And I agree
with this stance, otherwise every other whiner in the CCHA, like myself,
would be calling the league office with every trivial complaint they could
think of.) Hands tied, I approached the UM coaching staff to inform them of
this injustice. The response? Players do not attend Michigan for
individual awards, nor does the University lobby for them. I realized right
then that it would be best for me to leave well enough alone and exude the
same class as the coaching staff did.
Between non-uniformity and non-objectivity, I've lost most of my faith in
"official" statistics.
Thanks for putting up with my whining, maybe I can finally put it behind me.
John H
U Mich
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