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Whether Tanner Glass plays one game in 2016/17, or the rest of them, it probably doesn't matter much for the NYR's chances at the 2017 Stanley Cup. The Defense is just so so bad.
But it's fun to look at players on the extreme of stats - the truly great and the truly awful. So let's look at just how bad Glass has been...
Read moreJoe, the big cheese at BlueshirtBanter, has an article today called Hayes and Miller's Growth Vital to Rangers Success. It's a good article and you've already probably read it. Here's the comment that got me re-thinking....
Read moreThe conventional wisdom is that Roger Federer's weakness, to the extent that he has one, is in his one-handed backhand. This is especially an issue against Rafael Nadal, who has traditionally, at least according to that same conventional wisdom, targeted attacks on Federer's backhand side with Nadal's high-bouncing lefty forehand. When Nadal gets that forehand kicking off the court, and makes Federer try to muscle an awkward one-handed backhand groundstroke from a hit point higher up towards his shoulder, it generally spells trouble for Federer. ...
Read moreJimmy Vesey got off to a very good start. In his first 10 games, he scored 6 goals, and 9 points. After that, his production dried up. Has he...dun dun dunnnn....HIT THE WALL?
Read moreThe Rangers #fancystats at 5v5 have, aside from Kreider/Stepan/Zuccarello, been terrible. But one bright spot so far has been the special teams, especially the Penalty Killing. What was a major mess in 2015/16 has become a team strength in 2016/17. There are probably many reasons (the bottom 6 forwards signed in the off-season, improved play from the returning skaters, Dan Girardi being a magical broken clock that's on time more than expected) but who has the time to do a deep dive into that???
Read moreThe 2016 holidays are over, but I'm always hunting for a good bargain. If you have lazy relatives, you probably have a few extra virtual dollars sitting on an impersonal bank Gift Card.
So if you don't want to be one of those people who let billions of gift card dollars go unused, the savvy marketers at the NHL are here to help. As of today, there are approximately 3600 NHL-developed-and-endorsed products "on sale" at NHL.com. I've painstakingly gone through all of them to find you the Best Deals (all prices USD, since that's all the NHL cares about).
Read moreDavid Staples is a writer at the Edmonton Journal...no no wait come back!!! Stick with me...
He recently wrote his latest screed on apparent league MVP Kris Russell: "Why there's such furious disagreement on the merits of Kris Russell..." where he summarizes some of the different writings on Russell. There's no reason for me to try and rebut Staples' argument - others who are smarter than me, and better writers/educators have done that before, and this time is no different. ...
Read moreIn Part 1, I looked at the NYR first 10 games, from a 5v5 perspective. Now let's check out the PP (5v4) and PK (4v5) results. To my eyes, both the PP and the PK are completely transformed from last season - but unfortunately there's not a lot to analyze without getting more granular microdata and video.
Read moreBased on Watching the Games™, it seems like the Rangers are playing better than last season. While the 2015/16 team started 6-2-1-1 in its first ten games, I think the conventional wisdom was that the team was being outplayed, but riding a hot start from the normally slow-starting Lundqvist. The 2016/16 team has started out 7-3, and I'd bet the CW is the opposite - this is a strong team mostly outplaying the opposition, and the skaters performance is overcoming a slow start by Lundqvist.
Read moreRogers Place, the new home of perennial-[lottery]-winners Edmonton Oilers, issued a press release [!!!!] for its latest specialty food item, the Bobby Nick's Burger. Named for Oilers Entertainment [sic] Group CEO and Vice Chairman Bob Nicholson, the burger is...well let's go to the press release.
Read moreWyshynski got into it on twitter dot com today (with people dumb enough to follow him) about Matt Murray's "case" for being named the Conn Smythe winner if the Penguins win. [UPDATED to reflect post Game 5 stats]
Kessel for the story. Murray for the stats. Crosby for the Crosby. https://t.co/rQwpBxpCfh
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 9, 2016
But I'd be fine with any of the three. Just think Murray has the best case. But, c'mon, we all want Phil.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 9, 2016
To be fair to Wyshynski (I just threw up in my mouth a little), he's not making this the hill he wants to die on, but he does say that Murray has the "best" case. He poo-poos (legal term of art) the fact that the Pens have routinely dominated their opponents in this Cup playoffs.
Rookie goalie, 5-0 after losses. He's the foundation for all of this. But Sid is Sid and Kessel's a better story.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 9, 2016
I'm sure we're seeing the same results with Zatkoff and Fleury. Yep, no question. Murray's just a mannequin. https://t.co/tAzLghQOcG
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 9, 2016
This is a list of the last 10 Stanley Cup champions, their total shots +/-, and their all-situations shots-for% for that playoff year. [Updated through Game 5]
That 2008 Red Wings team was unreal, but the 2016 Penguins are sitting comfortably in in 2nd place. Wyshynski can call out any intangible he wants, but Murray has been basically an average-to-good goaltender - and that's all he's needed to be. Cool, he gets "points" for being a rookie and not, I dont know, pooping his pants every game? But this is a dominant Pittsburgh and smart award voters should recognize that.
By the way, as of the time I write this, the Pens are out-shooting the Sharks 26-13 in Game 5.
UPDATE: Wyshynski is sad that I "cherry picked" his tweets.
@cunninghamp220 Of course @RickNashtag leaves out my recency bias argument. Plus-35 shot adv. in SCF (4 games). Only plus-7 vs. Caps. #joke
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 10, 2016
I'm admittedly an idiot, but I don't see how this helps the overall argument that Murray has been the MVP of the entire playoffs. He was good against the Caps, and maybe that was the key factor in them advancing. But
But Holtby had a better save % in their series… https://t.co/pAZmPfB8Yn
— Weirdneal (@Weirdneal) June 9, 2016
Again, Murray has been good. He may have been CAPITAL LETTERS GREAT against the Caps. But he hasn't been the MVP by any "case". Unless, of course, you place a lot of weight on goalies who win above all else.
UPDATE 2:
Sharks outshot 46-22 tonight. 179-120 in the series, an average of 12 a game.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) June 10, 2016
Again I'm right in my analysis.
NHL Awards are dumb - in large part because most of them are voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The addition of many "bloggers" to the PHWA has improved the quality of the membership's decision-making, but those newer, more open-minded members, are still outnumbered by the many, terrible writers who have a vote...
Read moreA month ago, I took a look at how Patrick Kane's season stacked up compared to his peers - specifically the other Top 20 scoring forwards at that time. I generally focused on offensive possession metrics (corsi, shots, and expected goals) because Kane has led the NHL in points scoring from the start, and I wanted to see if there was some way to really see if Kane was having the "outstanding" season people those points suggested. At the time, I saw that Kane was individually producing a lot of offensive attempts, and was getting favorable shooting percentages while on the ice. I also saw that his possession rates were in the middle of the pack, and that he was routinely at the bottom of the list in relative rates. Not only was he not outperforming his teammates compared to his Top 20 scoring peers - he was actually under-performing compared to his team itself.
Time for an update...
Read moreKeith Yandle is considered a power play star, but early in the 2015/16 season, the Rangers rarely gave him "first unit" time. Well that's changed as the season wound down, so I wanted to see what impact he might have had...
Read moreAnyone following the NYR season knows that the NYR are having a terrible defensive season, by #fancystats metrics, at least. As of today, the NYR are 20th in Score-Adjusted 5v5 CorsiFor% in the entire league. I think it's pretty well accepted now that good puck possession teams are better bets for playoff success.
I've also spent a fair amount of time marveling at the NYR's defensemen's possession results specifically, and, as I've tweeted before, they are bad, bad, and not good. So I thought it would be fun to see how the NYR defensemen's current Score-Adjusted 5v5 CorsiFor% measured up to other playoff teams in the BtN era...
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