In hockey, a player who passes to another player who passes to a third player who skates end-to-end and fakes the goalie out of his jock and scores gets an assist. An assist is worth one point. A goal is worth one point. Why? What did the first guy do to deserve an assist and a point? How can you compare it with the goal scorer?
In basketball, a guy passes to another guy who scores directly off the pass (not by dribbling through traffic or posting up for a jumper) is given an assist. If the same guy makes a great pass which results in his teammate getting fouled and making two free throws and the same two points that the teammate got when made the basket he doesn't get an assist. Why not? Same result (two points)...same pass...same shot. If he only made one foul shot shouldn't he get 1/2 of an assist?
I would love to see hockey and BBall go to the lacrosse method of awarding assists: subjectively. In Lax, as in BBall, you get an assist when your pass directly leads to a goal, similar to basketball. Not all passes are assists. You don't get secondary assists. The assist is worth less points than the goal. You don't get an assist when you take shot and the goalie makes the save and someone puts in the rebound. An assist is something that should be given when a pass is made or a play is made which directly leads to a goal.
Take last night's Sabres game...I'd award an assist to Antipen because his shot was deflected into the goal by Reinhardt. I would award Eichel and assist on Kane's goal because his pass directly led to the goal. Sorry but Marco Scandella clearly did not deserve as many points as these other guys for a mere four foot pass to Eichel. Reward the guys who make the goals not the guys who pass it to the guy who passes it to the guy who makes a great individual play to score.
That makes sense.