Is Rick Nash one-dimensional?

[ZombieMatt]

Originally Posted by Vlad The Impaler

More accurately... they never do :p

No Vlad, they never tell teh full story, but they can give an indication.

Here's the thing about any statistic you ever see in your life.

You see a number, and teh first thing you need to ask yourself is: IS that a big number or a small number? You need to have some context of the item to make any sense of a stat.

Secondly, you have to wonder what external factors have influenced that.

For instance, witH Nash, his 27 goals at this point is a big number. Good. His 6 assists is a small number? Why? Well, he scores lots because he is called upon to be a goal scorer. He gets big minutes and PP time. Why the low assists? 1)Because his stlye of play usually places him very close to the net with the puck. The opportunity for passing isn't always there. 2)Inadequate linemates to score on good passes made by him. 3)Being the go to guy on a team often means other players are making an effort to set YOU up. Why pass when you're the last guy on a tick tack toe play?

Just a general thought about analyizing any number and such. They mean something, but not everything, adn tehre is so much going on within a single stat that you really need to think about something before saying, Nash has 27G, 6A, thus is one dimensional. Just a thought.

[Ejh18]

Originally Posted by Mountie

For instance, witH Nash, his 27 goals at this point is a big number. Good. His 6 assists is a small number? Why? Well, he scores lots because he is called upon to be a goal scorer. He gets big minutes and PP time. Why the low assists? 1)Because his stlye of play usually places him very close to the net with the puck. The opportunity for passing isn't always there. 2)Inadequate linemates to score on good passes made by him. 3)Being the go to guy on a team often means other players are making an effort to set YOU up. Why pass when you're the last guy on a tick tack toe play?

Just a general thought about analyizing any number and such. They mean something, but not everything, adn tehre is so much going on within a single stat that you really need to think about something before saying, Nash has 27G, 6A, thus is one dimensional. Just a thought.

I agree, just going to correct a couple small mistakes.

Nash has 28 goals...

Also, he isnt really logging "big" minutes. He gets about 17:45 a game... which is the least amount of TOI for any of the top 10 in goal scoring. And not even close to Kovy's 24 minutes or Langs 21...

The rest of the points you brought up were correct though.

Nash pays the price to score the goals he does. He is regularly matched up with the top D pairings... and is abused in front of the net. But he continuously returns there...

About his line mates... He spent the 1st half of the season with Marchant (6 goals)& Letowski(5 goals). Not exactly quality line mates. Maybe if they were playing on the 3rd line... but not the 1st.

Now he is with Cassells(5 goals, but injured) & Vyborny(13 goals, 9 of which came in his first 15 games... he hasnt been hot since then... ). Mark Hartigan is now filling in on Nash's line for Cassells. Again not exactly world class finishers.

[Rabid Ranger]

I don't think Nash is one dimensional in the sense that he clearly does more than score goals. Once the team around him gets better, the other areas of his game will blossom and be noticed more. That being said, I kind of wish there were more one dimensional players in today's NHL. Everyone *has* to be this great two way player, and IMO that takes away from the natural ability some of these guys have. You already see two and sometimes three lines of checkers, let the skill guys do their thing.

[CBJSlash]

Over half of Nash's goals are banging home rebounds, there is no way that is a selfish play. If anything that shows he is willing to take a beating for the team.