The NHL playoffs mean the script gets flipped on a lot of things. The intensity of the games and the brief window to succeed means shooting and save percentage become paramount. The hot goalie and the shooter who’s hitting the net are kings. The guy with no goals gets roasted on every intermission panel.
But there’s another theme that gets reversed. Fans and media who spend the regular season overemphasizing the effects of Quality of Competition, spend the playoffs underemphasizing it.
This caught my eye today:
the best line is probably the one who’s spent over 50% of their time against the best line in hockey and is above water in those minutes u2642ufe0f
— dom luszczyszyn (@domluszczyszyn) April 19, 2019
Now, Sean Tierney doesn’t really mean “best” in the sense of an overall measure of value.