Campbellnomics - Nov. 18

Alexander Semin's lead in Campbellnomics is a slim half point. (Getty Images)

Ken Campbell
2008-11-18 09:48:00

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 a 1-0 overtime game, 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, Simon Gagne is in the top five in NHL scoring, but doesn't crack the top 20 in Campbellnomics. Conversely, Tuomo Ruutu is tied for 120th in NHL scoring, but is in the top 10 in Campbellnomics.

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.