from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

With the captains of the Islanders, Capitals and Penguins all tracking to record 84 points through Saturday afternoon’s games, it would mark just the sixth full season since 1950-51 in which the Art Ross would be awarded to a player finishing with fewer than 85 points.

So, though it is a universal truth the level of play in the NHL never has been better (the folks here and in Edmonton may beg to differ), the very best players never have been more stifled.

That is largely a function of the depth of talent and skating ability across the board from one-through-18 in the lineup.

There are no easy matches for coaches to exploit as they might have — and did — in the past when first-liners could feast when on against plodding fifth and sixth defensemen or marginal third- and fourth-line checkers.

When the NHL completes its conversion of its historical statistical inventory on its website, hopefully the game sheets will allow us to see how often, say, Phil Esposito — who never met a three-minute shift he wouldn’t take — scored while on the ice against 10th and 11 forwards and fifth and sixth defensemen.

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