Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

[Sean Pickett]

Defensemen Best PPG in a Season Since the Start of Hockey East

Defensemen Best PPG in a Season Since the Start of Hockey East

Today I was asked for ppg for defensemen for a season and I was surprised with the top players since the start of Hockey East in 1984. I only included players who played at least 10 games on defense during the season (otherwise you would get a few anomalies like Ahti Oksanen playing on defense for just 1 game in 2014-15 but leading all defensemen with 4.000 ppg). Matt Grzelcyk was fourth with 0.927 ppg in 2014-15, which I had not taken notice of at the time. Of the top three, two broke a point a game. Any guesses as to the top three (and season for bonus points)?

Sean

 

[TheRevengeance]

Today I was asked for ppg for defensemen for a season and I was surprised with the top players since the start of Hockey East in 1984. I only included players who played at least 10 games on defense during the season (otherwise you would get a few anomalies like Ahti Oksanen playing on defense for just 1 game in 2014-15 but leading all defensemen with 4.000 ppg). Matt Grzelcyk was fourth with 0.927 ppg in 2014-15, which I had not taken notice of at the time. Of the top three, two broke a point a game. Any guesses as to the top three (and season for bonus points)?

Sean

I think you made a mistake somewhere in there. I went looking back (using total games, not conference games, since Grzelcyk's average is .927 over the entire 41-game schedule) and I've found 7 seasons over 1.00 just from 2002-Present.

Edit: I'm realizing now that you were probably going for only BU players, I was looking at all of Hockey East.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

I think you made a mistake somewhere in there....

thems is fightin' words when it comes to Sean's data!!!!

 

[defkit]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

I would think Tom Poti's sophomore season would be among the top 4. Maybe Peter Ahola in '90-'91? Kaj Linna in '94-95?

 

[Rogie21]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

Vic Stanfield 70 points in 32 games in 74-75 2.1875
Dick Lamby 59 points in 30 games in 77-78 1.966
Bobby Brown 60 points in 31 games in 70-71 1.935

 

[Tater]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

HEA Awards are tonight, anyone taking shots at who wins the major awards?

Player of the Year: Gaudette, NU (no-brainer)

Coach of the Year: Madigan, NU (a bit up in the air, could very well be York, but NU is the consensus best team in Hockey East and they were 5th pre-season)

Rookie of the Year: Primeau, NU (closest race, could very well be Hutsko, and skaters tend to be favored for this. Also, do they want NU to sweep the top awards? Pretty hard to ignore a goalie who led the league in GAA and sv pct.)

 

[J.D.]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

BC won the league without a dominant line and player like NU has. It should be York all day long but he never seems to win so you could end up being right. Or they'll share it.

ROTY is a little tougher because you are comparing different positions. Because of that I think Primeau and Hutsko will share that one. Hutsko was a PPG player in league play, far and away ahead of the next closest guy at .83. His PPG clip also had him tied with Greenway and Foley...only behind the big three from NU. If there was someone close to Hutsko I would say Primeau alone.

 

[J.D.]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

And yes NU was picked 5th and finished 2nd but BC was picked 4th and finished 1st. So the preseason predictions were a wash.

 

[Tater]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

BC won the league without a dominant line and player like NU has. It should be York all day long but he never seems to win so you could end up being right. Or they'll share it.

What I was wondering is if we are supposed to be looking at this through a prism of HEA games only or more at the whole season. If it is HEA only, it is very close with maybe a slight edge to York for winning the regular season (both BC and NU went up the same number of spots from the pre-season poll). If it is overall body of work, it is Madigan since it would be hard to give COY for a team that couldn't muster a single non-conference win. I would think it would be HEA only but since this is more of an award based on opinion than statistics, voters may be swayed by NU being the best overall team.

Why would having a dominant line be used against Madigan? They are juniors and seniors which I believe came into the leagues relatively unheralded. Madigan should be credited for developing them.

 

[J.D.]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

One last edge I would give York is only having one senior, a grad transfer. A team ahead of schedule really.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

So vote Madigan
Jerry doesn’t deserve it
Cause they always win

 

[J.D.]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

What I was wondering when I was looking at this is if we are supposed to be looking at this through a prism of HEA games only or more at the whole season. If it is HEA only, it is very close with maybe a slight edge to York for winning the regular season (both BC and NU went up the same number of spots from the pre-season poll). If it is overall body of work, it is Madigan since it would be hard to give COY for a team that couldn't muster a single non-conference win. I would think it would be HEA only but since this is more of an award based on opinion than statistics, voters may be swayed by NU being the best overall team.

Why would having a dominant line be used against Madigan? They are juniors and seniors which I believe came into the leagues relatively unheralded. Madigan should be credited for developing them.

I've always thought they vote on these things based on league play. Maybe I'm wrong but considering everyone can have different non conference opponents it would make sense to do it that way. For example, BC played St. Cloud, Denver, Northern Michigan, Michigan Tech, Harvard. NU played Sacred Heart, RIT, AIC and Bentley. Best non conference team they played this year was Quinnipiac and they weren't a good team this year (BC should start scheduling cupcakes apparently). The NU players may have come into the league unheralded but they were established players coming into this year. It's not like that trio came out of nowhere and surprised everyone this year. Should be easier to coach when you have more talent. Everyone seems to agree that NU is more talented than BC this year but BC still managed to win the league. If you gave York NUs roster and Madigan BCs roster my money would be on York. We'll never know but I do believe that.

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

What I was wondering is if we are supposed to be looking at this through a prism of HEA games only or more at the whole season. If it is HEA only, it is very close with maybe a slight edge to York for winning the regular season (both BC and NU went up the same number of spots from the pre-season poll). If it is overall body of work, it is Madigan since it would be hard to give COY for a team that couldn't muster a single non-conference win. I would think it would be HEA only but since this is more of an award based on opinion than statistics, voters may be swayed by NU being the best overall team.

Why would having a dominant line be used against Madigan? They are juniors and seniors which I believe came into the leagues relatively unheralded. Madigan should be credited for developing them.

When they give stats for the players it is always conference only, so I would assume that for coach it is supposed to be conference only. Of course, no matter what they are supposed to use as the criteria you know that they don't vote in a vacuum and I think the poor OOC record for BC hurts Coach York, even if it's not supposed to. That said, this is the second best conference and regular season record by winning percentage NU has had since the start of Hockey East, so I think Coach Madigan gets COTY.

Sean

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

I think you made a mistake somewhere in there. I went looking back (using total games, not conference games, since Grzelcyk's average is .927 over the entire 41-game schedule) and I've found 7 seasons over 1.00 just from 2002-Present.

You have me at a disadvantage, as you didn't name the 7 players, so I can't see why we have such a major difference. If you let me know the players I can hopefully determine why there is a difference. As I said, I am only counting games played at defense, not a player's entire season. For example, this season David Farrance has played 27 games, 17 at defense and 10 at forward; my defensemen scoring stats for him this season only include the 17 games at defense.

thems is fightin' words when it comes to Sean's data!!!!

Not fightin' words exactly, but if I'm wrong then my entire database is wrong and that would not be good...

I would think Tom Poti's sophomore season would be among the top 4. Maybe Peter Ahola in '90-'91? Kaj Linna in '94-95?

Tom Poti's sophomore season is correct, he averaged 1.105 ppg on defense in 1997-98 for second best on the list. Peter Ahola's 1990-91 season is a great guess, but it comes in 5th at 0.923 ppg, just behind Matt Grzelcyk. Kaj Linna is not even close the top, with his 1994-95 season 29th at 0.730 ppg and his best season, 1992-93, 19th at 0.778 ppg. Still need 1st and 3rd, although I don't expect anyone to correctly guess who's first.

Vic Stanfield 70 points in 32 games in 74-75 2.1875
Dick Lamby 59 points in 30 games in 77-78 1.966
Bobby Brown 60 points in 31 games in 70-71 1.935

Thanks Rogie, someday I may get all the game-by-game stats entered into my database. In the meantime, the highest average I do have in my database is Bob Maker, who played 21 games at defense in 1946-47 and had a 2.381 ppg average.

Sean

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

Edit: I'm realizing now that you were probably going for only BU players, I was looking at all of Hockey East.

Yes, I meant just BU players. Hopefully that accounts for the difference.

Sean

 

[HHound]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

BC won the league without a dominant line and player like NU has. It should be York all day long but he never seems to win so you could end up being right. Or they'll share it.

ROTY is a little tougher because you are comparing different positions. Because of that I think Primeau and Hutsko will share that one. Hutsko was a PPG player in league play, far and away ahead of the next closest guy at .83. His PPG clip also had him tied with Greenway and Foley...only behind the big three from NU. If there was someone close to Hutsko I would say Primeau alone.

If one thinks of the ROY as the MVP of the freshman class, the award should go to Primeau. His dominance in goal has complimented an improving defense and a strong offense and has meant far more to his NU team than Hutsko's contribution has meant to BC's offense (although some of his goals have been very timely) . The clincher is the fact that Primeau's GAA was more than 0ne full goal better than his predecessor and teammate Ryan Ruck. The difference has been a massive factor in NU's success,

 

[J.D.]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

Hutsko has a fairly big edge over his next closest competitor at the forward position, it's just very difficult to compare goalie to forward. I'm certainly not gonna complain if Primeau wins it, I just think this is a case where we will see a share. Having watched Hutsko down the stretch, he is the only game changing forward that BC has. You're severely underestimating the impact he has had on the entire team.

 

[J.D.]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

Going back to COTY...with the unbalanced schedule here are the teams BC and NU played three times:

BC: Providence, UConn, Maine, Lowell
NU: Lowell, Vermont, Merrimack, UNH

 

[Tater]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

Hutsko has a fairly big edge over his next closest competitor at the forward position, it's just very difficult to compare goalie to forward. I'm certainly not gonna complain if Primeau wins it, I just think this is a case where we will see a share. Having watched Hutsko down the stretch, he is the only game changing forward that BC has. You're severely underestimating the impact he has had on the entire team.

I guess since you have mentioned sharing ROY that this has happened before. I do seem to remember it has but my memory is fuzzy on this. And for that matter, are we overlooking Makar? Hard to quantify defensemen.

ETA: It has, but not since 1992. http://hockeyeastonline.com/pdf/web1718/men/9.%20RoY.pdf

 

[J.D.]

Re: Boston University 17-18 - thread El Segundo

I guess since you have mentioned sharing ROY that this has happened before. I do seem to remember it has but my memory is fuzzy on this. And for that matter, are we overlooking Makar? Hard to quantify defensemen.

I'm glad you brought him up. Back when I first looked at everything I thought his own teammate was right there with him, Ferraro. I didn't think there was a big enough gap between how the two had performed.

As for the sharing part, I don't have any specific examples but I think it's something the league ends up doing a bit. Even situations where they take 4 forwards on the all-rookie team.