Karen/Greg Ambrose wrote:
> I didn't realize that Drury was a defenseman. Just kidding. Drury is a
> tenacious back checker, he is very solid defensively. But . . . does this
> offset his lack of point production this year? There are many guys in HE
> who are solid defensive forwards but will not get a sniff for the Hobey, or
> anything else for that matter. Voting for the award should be based on a
> player's all around abilities and contribution to the team for the season
> in question and its relationship to those who he is competing against for
> the award. Based on this criteria, and feel free to disagree, Drury just
> does not measure up to Krog this year. In fact, he doesn't measure up to
> Mark Mowers either.
It's not like Chris Drury isn't scoring at all. Yes, Krog has a large lead (15) in
the points race, but this is a gap that could be made up by defensive play. It also
looks to me like Krog is getting a lot more help from linemates than Drury is.
Drury has 50% more points than the second leading forward scorer for BU, and twice
as many points as the #3. This may be due to line shuffling by Jack Parker, but to
an outsider, it gives the appearance that Drury isn't getting the kind of support
that Krog is.
Also, you say, "Voting for the award should be based on a player's all around
abilities and contribution to the team," and then cite only scoring totals. If it's
based on everything, then what else does Krog do for UNH? Taking your paragraph as
a whole, you seem to say that there are a lot of guys, "solid defensive forwards,"
who will never get a mention for the Hobey and that these contributions, "all around
abilities" ought to count in people's thinking. Yet I end up feeling that you don't
take them into consideration. Krog leads the nation in scoring, so he's the obvious
choice.
> I'll pass,I'm going to assume that you don't have to be a math major to be
> on the Hobey Committee
Numbers don't necessarily mean what they say at first glance. If you're going to
base your arguments entirely upon the stats, it helps to delve into what they
actually mean. No, you don't have to be a math major to be on the selection
committee. This in part explains some of the bad selections they've made (though
they have a long way to go to catch up to the folks who select baseball MVPs when it
comes to boneheaded decisions).
> So are the ones in Durham, but this is,I think, a debate of Drury vs. Krog.
Based on the subject line of your post, I thought it was about whether Krog deserves
the Hobey. As to UNH defensemen, I have no way of judging them. BU and MSU put +/-
on their websites, so I had a starting point. After that, it requires observation.
I won't see the Wildcats unless they make it to the Final Four (I doubt that they'll
be sent to the West Regional in Ann Arbor).
> I didn't say his numbers were inflated, although I doubt that they would be
> so gaudy if he played the minutes of guys like Matile and Turco.
"This guy's numbers have to be deceptive. Who has he played against?" I don't
know; that sounds like a suggestion that his numbers are inflated to me. Actually,
though, I need to thank you. By forcing me to defend this, I found the goalie that
does deserve serious Hobey consideration. You'd think with all of the talking about
MSU defensemen I've done, that it would have occured to me to check out:
Chad Alban: GP: 25 Min: 1501.98 Rec: 18-3-4 GA: 39 Sv: 469 Sv%: .923
GAA: 1.56
The league adjustment now works against the guy I'm touting, giving us an adjusted
GAA of 1.81, if Alban were in the highest scoring league in the country. Granted, I
still think the defense has something to do with it; in 28 more minutes, Alban has
faced 161 fewer shots than Sean Matile. Still, it's an awfully hard stat line to
argue with. I'll have to change my signature line.
J. Michael Neal
Tyler Harlton or Chad Alban for Hobey Baker!
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