Hockey's Greatest Statistical Fallacy

Was Monday the best night yet of the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs? That's always a tough call, because it largely depends on who you cheer for and who wins.

But for the neutral fan, it's hard to beat the heart-pounding hockey displayed in Monday's doubleheader of Ottawa-New Jersey followed by San Jose-Detroit. It was a brilliant - and occasionally controversial - reminder that no other show in sport comes close to matching the drama of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Also worth noting: the two games totaled just five goals scored, one of them into an empty net. So according to some guy with a calculator, the hockey was terrible and the fans were bored stiff.

Several times every season, someone works out the average number of goals scored per NHL game, and uses it as a definitive benchmark to measure the entertainment value of the product. Fans and potential fans are presumed to be dull-witted folk of miniscule attention span. They want goals, goal and more goals. Otherwise they'll nod off, ticket sales will plummet, and the NHL dies a slow and painful death. Or something like that.

It's a great theory, for anyone who has never watched a hockey game.

Sports statistics have been used in the service of many lies and half-truths. But as the Senators, Devils, Sharks and Red Wings proved on Monday, goals-equals-entertainment might be the biggest whopper of them all.