It's all useless like foreplay
- PhillySportsGuy

No it's not useless really. If NHL teams are doing what I think they are with the principles of Corsi, it would actually be a very useful tool.

It's an opinion. No more valid than anyone else's.
- Jsaquella

It sure is an opinion. But a lot of information has come to light that makes it a very valid opinion. And has really shed some light on the frequent misuse of the statistics by a lot of fans. I was able to analyze the stats, find their weaknesses, and point out why in the current state, that it is not a reliable statistic due to false data.

Those two shouldn't be too far off. Let's face it, even an old school stat like shots on goal can be a little off. Was that puck going wide when the goalie gloved it down? I know what I would like to see would be based on rating decision making with the puck and that would be very subjective. I know giveaways get tracked but then I look at the box score and think, well that guy gave the puck away more than once in my book at least. Something I'd like to see tracked with goalies, short side and 5-hole goals, would be pretty cut and dried.
- fls13

They're actually pretty far off. Similar to standard +/-, as much as 30-40% of the data is false.

Disagree that he's the worst player in the deal, and the suggestion wasn't trading those two for him. It was more trading them for cap room to add bogosian




- Jsaquella

Okay so what are they getting for MacDonald and Schenn? And then what are they trading to get Bogosian?

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Defensenan

They're actually pretty far off. Similar to standard +/-, as much as 30-40% of the data is false.
- MJL

What're your thoughts on the adoption of the SportVU technology?

What're your thoughts on the adoption of the SportVU technology?
- BulliesPhan87

If it can be adapted to Hockey and provide better data, I think it would be outstanding. And it would really go a long way to the advancement of analytics.

Good blog Bill. And of course I still stand by that piece of advice I gave you at that Phantoms game so long ago. Advanced stats have their place as an additional tool, but what the pro scouts do and see attending games in person is still invaluable. One of the reasons I think that the Buffalo Sabres, for instance, have had such bad records in recent years (they won all of 15 games last year) has been their decision some years ago to fire their pro scouts and depend on video from commercial telecasts in order to save a few bucks. Of course the folly of this is making one mistake because of such false economy like signing Ville Leino (0 goals, 15 assists last year) to a five year, $27M contract in 2011 cost the club exponentially more then they "saved" by not scouting players in person. In his three years with the Sabres he scored a total of ten goals while being paid $16M. With the $7.3M they will pay him over the next six years to buy out the contract, each one of those goals will have cost the Sabres $2.3M!! None of the pro scouts I talked to in 2011 or since ever thought that signing was going to help the Sabres, and if that club had been willing to spend what they did for just half of one of those ten goals to keep their pro scouts they would probably never had made that mistake either. Of course every team still makes mistakes even with pro scouts, but avoiding just one bad one like Buffalo's with Leino by having them is still the smart hockey -- and business -- decision.