morten
185
2016/08/01 14:49
#319705
Manne wrote:
Oh goodie, a chance to tee off on analytics! First off, get off my lawn. Second, you can take your Corsi and. ... No, actually I'm not an anti-analytics guy. Do I think some of the new breed of stats are a bit tedious and borderline silly? Yeah. But overall, I'm a guy who believes the more information, the better.
Generally, I like all the possession stats, things like Corsi percentage and Fenwick, and I like the new iteration of stats that show where shots came from and how often certain players shoot from certain spots and the percentage of closer-in shots some goalies face than others.
If I have to name one overrated stat here, though, I'm going to go with "giveaways." How can it ever be good for a player to have a high number of giveaways or for their occurring at all to be considered insignificant? How is giving the puck away a lot not considered a horrible thing?
Well, let's take a look at the top five giveaway leaders, according to Sportscharts-com, in the league this past season, according to Sporting Charts. They were: 1, P.K. Subban (106); 2, Brent Burns (102); 3. Joe Thornton (98); 4, Drew Doughty (97) and, 5, Erik Karlsson (96).
Would anyone say any of those five guys had a bad year...that they wouldn't want them on their team? No. Well, maybe the Montreal Canadiens would with Subban, but we digress. You can't turn the puck over if you don't have the puck on your stick. And these five guys have the puck on their sticks a lot. Doughty, in fact, led all players with a 58.1 Corsi percentage. That's a big reason why he won his first Norris Trophy this year.
Yet, if anyone were to be easily swayed by giveaway stats, they would likely think Doughty is a turnover machine and not worth having. Now look, some guys do turn the puck over too much, and the stats accurately portray them as shaky. Andrej Sekera, with Edmonton last year for instance, was charged with 82 giveaways in 81 games. But his Corsi percentage was only 49.1. He was a liability with the puck even when he had it, which wasn't very often.
The top five giveaway leaders, though, all had Corsis over 50. That's why the giveaway stat is the most deceiving in my book.
Read more: NHL Twitter Mailbag: What Is Hockey's Most Overrated Statistic? | Bleacher Report
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2016/02/05
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Most teams have already done much of the heavy work in terms of filling their biggest needs and getting in position for success in 2015-16, but none of the 30 organizations are close to done with their offseason transactions. Pressing issues still need to be sorted out in various spots, whether it's an embattled player or needing to open up some salary space to get under the cap.
From the players still on the market to others who could be swapping jerseys in the coming days, let's take a look at the latest names being talked about.
Read more: NHL Rumors: Latest Roundup on Potential Trades and Free-Agency Moves | Bleacher Report