What is "consistency"?

[SDS]

Fans have bitched about player X being inconsistent for years.

 

So, does a 20 goal scorer, clearly a relatively productive player, need to score every 4th game for the entire season? A 10 goal scorer every 8 games? :rolleyes:

 

Life doesn't work that way.

 

What keeps them at 20 and not 40+ is the fact they don't have the elite talent that it takes to get 40+. Those goals are going to come in streaks, followed by drys spells. If there were no dry spells, they would not be 20 goal scorers - they would be 40 goal scorers.

 

And games would end 11-10 because when everyone is elite, then no one is elite...

[FearTheReaper]

Consistency in hockey doesn't always mean netting goals and racking up points. It means playing hard, and getting chances, while putting up average numbers. It also means avoiding huge slumps. Like Mac Arthur, he'll play great for a game or 2, and then disappear.

[SDS]

Consistency in hockey doesn't always mean netting goals and racking up points. It means playing hard, and getting chances, while putting up average numbers. It also means avoiding huge slumps. Like Mac Arthur, he'll play great for a game or 2, and then disappear.

 

Clarke MacArthur is not an elite player... teams have plenty of guys like this because you can't have an entire hockey team full of OV's.

[static70]

Fans have bitched about player X being inconsistent for years.

 

So, does a 20 goal scorer, clearly a relatively productive player, need to score every 4th game for the entire season? A 10 goal scorer every 8 games? :rolleyes:

 

Life doesn't work that way.

 

What keeps them at 20 and not 40+ is the fact they don't have the elite talent that it takes to get 40+. Those goals are going to come in streaks, followed by drys spells. If there were no dry spells, they would not be 20 goal scorers - they would be 40 goal scorers.

 

And games would end 11-10 because when everyone is elite, then no one is elite...

Consistency comes in many forms. If its goal scoring, then you score goals consistently.

If its playmaking, then you setup team mates, consistently.

If its checking or a shutdown line, then you shut down the opposing teams top players, consistently.

 

I could go on, but the point should have been received.

 

Championship teams don't make excuses, they find "consistent" ways to be successful. They become "consistent" players. They play as a "consistent" unit together.

[FearTheReaper]

Clarke MacArthur is not an elite player... teams have plenty of guys like this because you can't have an entire hockey team full of OV's.

 

Indeed, thats is very true. But there are players in Mac's postion who do play solid over long streches. That is a bad example on my behalf. Is Vanek a good example? Not solely becasue of this season, but because he has always been streaky.

[SDS]

Consistency comes in many forms. If its goal scoring, then you score goals consistently.

If its playmaking, then you setup team mates, consistently.

If its checking or a shutdown line, then you shut down the opposing teams top players, consistently.

 

I could go on, but the point should have been received.

 

Championship teams don't make excuses, they find "consistent" ways to be successful. They become "consistent" players. They play as a "consistent" unit together.

 

Thank you for providing an example of a fan who hasn't thought any of this through. :thumbsup:

 

Personally, I think they need to play 110%... Take one game at a time... Play within themselves... They have to stay focused because there is no "I" in TEAM...

[static70]

Thank you for providing an example of a fan who hasn't thought any of this through. :thumbsup:

 

Personally, I think they need to play 110%... Take one game at a time... Play within themselves... They have to stay focused because there is no "I" in TEAM...

Sorry SDS, I was only responding to the title of the post "What is Consistency" :D ;)

[shrader]

They're pretty consistent this month.

[NowDoYouBelieve]

Thank you for providing an example of a fan who hasn't thought any of this through. :thumbsup:

 

Personally, I think they need to play 110%... Take one game at a time... Play within themselves... They have to stay focused because there is no "I" in TEAM...

 

Scott, I get your point about people whining about "consistency". In the mind of the average fan, the team played well when they won a game, and they played poorly when they lost a game. No exceptions. This isn't true, of course, especially in a game like hockey, but that's the general perception. Therefore, a couple games won followed by a couple games lost is perceived as an inherent lack of consistency when it's really just the natural ebb and flow of the season.

 

Similarly, when an individual player scores 4 goals in 2 games this is treated as his true potential instead of a statistical anomaly. So when that same player fails to score in the next 7 games, he is slapped with the inconsistency tag. Outside the truly elite players in the game, I challenge you to name one player who hasn't been ragged on for being inconsistent.

 

Now, why is this? Well, we live in a sports world filled with cliches about hard work and effort. We're taught that good effort leads to wins and bad effort leads to losses. So whenever the Sabres lose...well goshdarnit, they just weren't trying hard enough! But in the beginning of the season, they were trying hard enough...they must've been because they were winning. INCONSISTENT!

 

Because of the cliches, many of us simply refuse to believe that luck plays a HUGE role in the results of a game, and a stretch of games, and a season. Sometimes you play really well and you still lose 5-2. Sometimes you have a mediocre stretch and you win a bunch of close games. Sometimes you play the exact same way and you lose a bunch of close games, like the Sabres have.

 

What if the Sabres play the exact same way they have over the last 6 games, but they manage to beat the Sharks on Saturday? What if they put forth the exact same effort, but the Sharks play horribly and the Sabres get a few lucky bounces? I doubt we'll hear much complaining from the peanut gallery.

[SDS]

Scott, I get your point about people whining about "consistency". In the mind of the average fan, the team played well when they won a game, and they played poorly when they lost a game. No exceptions. This isn't true, of course, especially in a game like hockey, but that's the general perception. Therefore, a couple games won followed by a couple games lost is perceived as an inherent lack of consistency when it's really just the natural ebb and flow of the season.

 

Similarly, when an individual player scores 4 goals in 2 games this is treated as his true potential instead of a statistical anomaly. So when that same player fails to score in the next 7 games, he is slapped with the inconsistency tag. Outside the truly elite players in the game, I challenge you to name one player who hasn't been ragged on for being inconsistent.

 

Now, why is this? Well, we live in a sports world filled with cliches about hard work and effort. We're taught that good effort leads to wins and bad effort leads to losses. So whenever the Sabres lose...well goshdarnit, they just weren't trying hard enough! But in the beginning of the season, they were trying hard enough...they must've been because they were winning. INCONSISTENT!

 

Because of the cliches, many of us simply refuse to believe that luck plays a HUGE role in the results of a game, and a stretch of games, and a season. Sometimes you play really well and you still lose 5-2. Sometimes you have a mediocre stretch and you win a bunch of close games. Sometimes you play the exact same way and you lose a bunch of close games, like the Sabres have.

 

What if the Sabres play the exact same way they have over the last 6 games, but they manage to beat the Sharks on Saturday? What if they put forth the exact same effort, but the Sharks play horribly and the Sabres get a few lucky bounces? I doubt we'll hear much complaining from the peanut gallery.

 

:wub: :wub: :wub:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-B0WCBz2mg

[SabresRepublic]

Indeed, thats is very true. But there are players in Mac's postion who do play solid over long streches. That is a bad example on my behalf. Is Vanek a good example? Not solely becasue of this season, but because he has always been streaky.

 

Vanek is NOT a good example because he is still recovering from a potentially career ending fractured jaw/concussion at a time when the jury was still out on his long term potential despite being a 40 goal scorer for the first few years of his career.

[SwampD]

Vanek is NOT a good example because he is still recovering from a potentially career ending fractured jaw/concussion at a time when the jury was still out on his long term potential despite being a 40 goal scorer for the first few years of his career.

Methinks youthink kinda crazy.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Darcy Regier is consistant.

 

Make of that what you will.

 

Happy now?

[LabattBlue]

Vanek is NOT a good example because he is still recovering from a potentially career ending fractured jaw/concussion at a time when the jury was still out on his long term potential despite being a 40 goal scorer for the first few years of his career.

...and you know this how? :unsure:

[Stoner]

Clarke MacArthur is not an elite player... teams have plenty of guys like this because you can't have an entire hockey team full of OV's.

 

You didn't ask what is elite.

 

We get it. You are one of the Complacents.

 

Two more games and you can say, "It's only March."

[LabattBlue]

Consistency is playing hard 8-9 out of every 10 games. Nobody is going to be perfect in all 82 games. There are going to be games where the points aren't coming, but as long as the effort is there as defined in my first sentence, and at the end of the season, the point totals are where they were expected, you wouldn't hear any complaints from me.

 

The problem is that way too many players on this team are only showing up for maybe 5 out of every 10 games(some better, some worse) and in the long run, that won't cut it.

[R_Dudley]

Consistency is playing hard 8-9 out of every 10 games. Nobody is going to be perfect in all 82 games. There are going to be games where the points aren't coming, but as long as the effort is there as defined in my first sentence, and at the end of the season, the point totals are where they were expected, you wouldn't hear any complaints from me.

 

The problem is that way too many players on this team are only showing up for maybe 5 out of every 10 games(some better, some worse) and in the long run, that won't cut it.

 

+2

 

I would add it's not just the players only showing up for 5 out of 10 games but 1 out of 3 periods in a game that get me.