First, I'd like to echo the comments of another list member that I feel
inclusion of the margin of victory and game site variables in TCHCR was
a better way to go.  Of course, Keith Instone acknowledged he sacrificed
some accuracy for simplicity, and since he's the one who does all the
work, I can't blame you, Keith!  I do feel, however, that margin of
victory IS a fairly significant item in hockey, unlike some other
sports.  "Running up the score" seems to be a concept which doesn't
really apply to hockey.  And, it certainly seems true that home ice
confers a significant advantage, as it does in basketball.
 
Another item, just as a potboiler. Last year I tried to get a discussion
going of the merits of the way hockey scores assists, but not too much
came of it.  (Maybe that's because one of our most thoughtful members,
Mike Machik, sent me his replies privately--as he did with my more
recent effort on "hard checking." Mike, you should share your excellent
comments more with the list!) ANYWAY . . . the recent discussion of
Hobey Baker award candidates and the recounting of the number of
"points" that some individuals have scored got me thinking about the way
assists are handled, again.
 
For one thing, I think giving equal weight to assists and goals is
pretty ridiculous, and thus put very little stock in "point"
totals--goals, yes, assists TO SOME EXTENT yes, but separately.  The
reason I'm waryof assists is that IMHO they are handed out way too
generously.  I know, I know, the scorers simply follow the rules of the
game.  I think the rules need revision.  I feel assists--in ANY sport--
should be awarded only to players whose pass results directly in a
score.  Last week goalie Corwin Saurdiff of the NMU Wildcats was given
an assist because he sent a clearing pass to mid-ice which was taken by
a forward whogot it to a center who skated in on the Colorado College
goal and fired off a shot from about 30 feet which scored.  I mean, come
on!  Even the SECOND pass wasn't all that instrumental in leading to the
score-at least, not much more so than any other pass.  Saurdiff's?!
 
Again, I realize that this is the rule and the tradition, but I think it
cheapens the assist concept.  An equally troublesome area, to me, is the
fact that the current rule/tradition on assist scoring awards assists to
the player whose rebound is knocked in by the goal scorer.  Is this
logical?   The "assister" wasn't trying to get an assist, he was
shooting himself.  Can you imagine how many "assists" would be awarded
in basketball if shots put in off offensive rebounds resulted in assists
for the player whose shot missed and was then rebounded by the eventual
scorer?  We'd all be laughing.  Yet that's exactly what we do in hockey.
Yes, I know that sometimes teams and individual players deliberately
fire low-percentage shots at the goalie simply hoping that a teammate
will pick up the rebound and score with it.  That's good tactics, but it
doesn't mean that the shot falls into the category of a great pass which
was intended to lead to a score by a fellow player.
 
Finally, back to point totals for a moment.  If a player is on a
team--and especially on a line--which is high scoring, he gets double
goodies automatically.  Since assists are awarded to the last two
players of the scoring team to have touched the puck prior to the goal
(assuming they were consecutive, i.e. without possession having been
gained by the defending team), players with high-scoring linemates are
always going to get a lot of assists.  I got some mild pleasure out of
seeing the tremendous point totals Scott Beattie, Dallas Drake, and Jim
Hiller had last year, but my Wildcat pride was tempered a bit by the
realization that their assist numbers were AUTOMATICALLY high by virtue
of their playing on the same line of great goal scorers so much.
 
Hockey's a GREAT game, and I love it.  It doesn't need to inflate the
performances of the players with such an artificial approach to its
scoring statistics.
 
Opinions?
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                     *      Steve Christopher, NMU       *
                    *  "Go 'Cats!''Goin' for it again in  *
                    *     '93--With a lot less "O"        *
                    *       but a little more "D"!        *
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