Campbellnomics - Round 1

Ken Campbell
2009-04-29 12:11:00

Hey, it’s the playoffs and everybody has to take it up a notch. And here at Campbellnomics, things are no different.

Campbellnomics is a statistic unique to THN.com that rewards players for producing offense in crucial situations. We’re not interested in players who get the sixth goal in a 6-2 game, but we are keenly interested in the player who broke the 2-2 tie to put his team ahead.

Here’s how it works. Players receive one point for a goal and one for an assist in the following scenarios: the first goal of a game, a goal that puts his team ahead at any time during a game, a goal that puts his team into a tie during a game and a goal that is part of a comeback that ultimately puts his team in a tie at any time during the game.

But unlike the regular season when overtime goals receive one point, OT goals are worth two points in playoff Campbellnomics and assists are worth one. So, in essence, an overtime goal in the playoff is worth four points – one for putting the team ahead, one for the game-winner and two for the overtime goal.

Another new wrinkle in this year’s playoffs is what we define as a game-winning goal. By NHL standards, game-winning goals are those that provide the margin of victory. So in a 6-2 game, that would be the third goal, even if it may have scored long after the game was already decided.

So we will now define the game-winner as the goal that gives a team a lead that it never relinquishes. Sometimes that will be the goal that makes it 1-0 and other times it will be an overtime goal.

Here are the top 20 Campbellnomics scorers after the first round of the playoffs.

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.