The Hockey News: Campbellnomics: Campbellnomics

Campbellnomics - Oct. 28

Zach Parise sits stop Campbellnomics and has 11 points in eight games. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Ken Campbell
2008-10-28 11:31:00

There's an old axiom in hockey that suggests they don't care how, they care how many. Well, at THN.com, we don't care how many. What we care about is how many were important.

That's the premise behind Campbellnomics, a statistic that is unique to THN.com and updated every Tuesday. Campbellnomics measures the offensive contributions, with a weighted emphasis on goals over assists, players make in key situations of the game.

We're not interested in who scores the sixth goal in a 6-2 game, but we do want to give credit to players who score the goal that put the team up 3-2, or the player who scored the first goal of the game.

Here's how it works: Players are awarded one point for a goal (including the shootout) and a half point for an assist – hey, this isn't minor hockey here and goals are more important than assists – when a goal is scored in the following situations: the first goal of a game, a goal that puts a team in a tie or ahead in a game, a comeback goal, a game-winning goal and an overtime goal.

A new wrinkle on Campbellnomics this season is the comeback goal. A comeback goal can only be scored when a team is trailing by two or more goals and that goal has a direct effect on his team getting back into the game. The goal must be one of goals scored in succession that result in the game later being tied.

This system both recognizes big goals and weighs them more heavily. For example, if a player scores the all-important first goal of the game, he automatically receives two points, one for the first goal of the game and one for putting his team ahead. If a player scores the game-winner in overtime, as Dennis Wideman of Boston Bruins did this past week, he gets four points – one for the first goal of the game, one for putting his team ahead, one for the game-winner and one for an overtime goal.

Obviously, the Campbellnomics rankings are sometimes radically different than the NHL scoring race because of the emphasis on important goals. For example, Mikko Koivu and Jason Spezza are in the top five in NHL scoring, but don't crack the top 20 in Campbellnomics. Conversely, Wideman is tied for 134th in NHL scoring, but is in the top 20.

Campbellnomics
RANK	NHL RANK	PLAYER	TEAM	FIRST		AHEAD		TIED		COMEBACK		GAME-WINNER		OT		SO	TOTAL
				G	A	G	A	G	A	G	A	G	A	G	A
1	13	Zach Parise	NJ		2	3	3	3	1			2	1	1		1	13.5
2	1	Alexander Semin	Wash	2	1	3	3	1	3	1		1	1	1			13
3	4	Patrick Sharp	Chi	2	1	4	1	1	1			2	1				11
4	T5	Marian Hossa	Det			3	1	2	1			2	1	1		1	10.5
	T45	Henrik Zetterberg	Det	3	1	3	2		1			1	1			1	10.5
6	11	Tomas Vanek	Buf		2	2	2	2		1		2				1	10
	T48	Dan Boyle	SJ		3	2	4		1		1	1	3	1			10
	12	Brad Boyes	StL	1		2			2	1		3				2	10
9	T30	Milan Hejduk	Col	1		2		3	3			1				1	9.5
	T30	Antti Miettinen	Min	1	2	2	2		1			3				1	9.5
11	T20	Nikolai Zherdev	NYR	1	2	1	4	1	1				1		1	1	9
	T24	Markus Naslund	NYR	2	2	2	2		3	1			1				9
	16	Scott Gomez	NYR	1	2	2	3		1		1	2	1				9
	2	Evgeni Malkin	Pit		3	2	4		2			1	1			1	9
	57	Phil Kessel	Bos	2	1	3	1	1				1				1	9
16	T43	Jeff Carter	Phi	1		2	1	2		1		1		1			8.5
17	15	Brandon Dubinsky	NYR	1		3	1		1			3					8
	T5	Marc Savard	Bos		1		4	2	1	1			3		1		8
	T108	Michal Handzus	LA	1	2	2	3				1	1		1			8
20	T59	Ales Kotalik	Buf		1	1	1	1			1	2				2	7.5
	T59	Mike Green	Wash		1	2	2	1		1		1	1		1		7.5
	T134	Dennis Wideman	Bos	2		2	1		1		1	1		1			7.5
	58	Johan Franzen	Det	1	1	2	1	1				2	1				7.5
	42	Pavel Datsyuk	Det		1	1	2	1				1	1		1	2	7.5

Campbellnomics is updated Tuesdays only on thehockeynews.com. For more great profiles, news and views from the world of hockey, Subscribe to The Hockey News magazine.

COMMENTS (1)

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Kellyn Posted
(2009-04-30 07:14:43)

I have always been someone who is more interested in the impact one particular goal has on a hockey game and its eventual outcome (for example, do you think a professional hockey player would rather score three goals for a hat trick in a game his team would eventually go on to lose or score the game-winning goal that would secure his team the win in a hotly contested match-up?) as opposed to the quantity a particular player racks up over the course of a season. While the number of goals an individual player scores can speak volumes about that player's skill level and overall ability, it is important to note that the goal scoring prowess of one player is not enough on its own to win a championship - Alex Ovechkin may have led the league last season with 65 goals, but his team barely squeezed past Carolina for the last playoff spot and even though the Capitals were able to push their first round series with the Flyers to seven games, their tendency to rely on Christobal Huet to shoulder the defensive burden with little help from the Caps blueliners is what killed their post season. In the end the number of points a player has does not really mean much in the grand scheme of things if said points don't secure enough wins to get the team a shot at the playoffs at the very least. That said, I think that this system is not only an awesome idea, but really creative (math was never really my friend and statistics can be mind boggling so it is impressive to see someone come up with their own system that seems sound), and as a Devils fan it is nice to see Zack Parise and the impact of his offensive contribution on his hockey club be recognised for a change.