Wayne Gretzky: “Stats are for losers.”

The NHL on TNT made its season debut last night with the Boston Bruins taking on the Washington Capitals in the early game and the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche taking on the Chicago Blackhawks in the late game. 

Given that the broadcast featured both the Capitals and the Avalanche, the TNT panel took some time to dissect the Capitals' offseason signing of former Avs' netminder Darcy Kuemper. Kuemper, of course, was between the pipes for most the Avs' Stanley Cup run this past Spring and essentially priced himself out of a job with the team. He hit the free agent market and was a hot commodity with several teams vying for his services. The Capitals, who have an aging roster and who have been seeking for a solid #1 goalie since the decline and departure of Braden Holtby, threw a five year, $5.25 million annual contract at Kuemper to help them get back to the promise land. The thing is... Kuemper is a good goalie, but is he a great goalie? Is he the kind of guy who can give you real stability in net? Or is he the kind of guy who can be just "good enough" when you have a high powered roster like the Avs had last season? That remains to be seen, but TNT broadcaster Paul 'BizNasty' Bissonnette isn't so sure. Biz was trying to make the point last night that Kuemper may not be all he's cracked up to be given his statistics over the past few seasons. The thing is... Biz's colleague Wayne Gretzky (you may have heard of him) wasn't buying it.

Check out Gretzky interrupting Biz's stats rant with a "Stats are for losers" take:

From Wayno:

"Stats are for losers."

"Grant Fuhr... if it was 5-5, he wasn't letting that 6th goal in. It's the goals and the times you let them in. If you make big key saves that's way more important than stats. I don't care what anybody says. It's the guy who makes the big save when the game's on the line and Kuemper proved he can do that last year.

- Wayne Gretzky

Suck on that, stats nerds.