I only saw one cliché.
Let me interpret it for you - You don't know what you're talking about when it comes to hockey and you are too caught up in your own opinion of yourself to realize that you are just as blind to adopting a view you're not familiar with as you say others are. You may WATCH a lot of hockey, as you say you do. But, you often make us wonder whether you've ever PLAYED at any level.
- Tonybere

LOL that is so so irrelevant.

So let's get this straight....

Florida was a good team last year, made a bunch of trades, signings, etc. based on analytics, and are now a worse team. It's the coach's fault they are not as good, even though he coached them last year so they get rid of him. (I get they have had a slew of injuries that have hurt them so far, but then why fire the coach if that is the excuse?).

Chiarelli is an idiot for trading Hall for Larsson, yet the Oilers are a much improved team, particularly defensively without losing much (if anything) offensively.

Russell is a terrible player yet the Oilers are 9-4-2 with Russell and 2-5 without him. (Small sample size, but drastic enough change to think he may have something to do with it.)
- NugentHallberle

Florida wasn't as good last year as people thought they were.

They're better this year than they've showed so far.

He wasn't.

Their defensive schemes have been.... very not good. And he openly criticized management for not keeping the kind of players he wanted.
- BINGO!

Yet the team's defensive game and team success was good last season when he had the players he wanted.

I actually agree - firing the guy at an away arena and not getting him transport home was a pretty Richard move.
- lumlums

Do we know the whole story though?

Florida wasn't as good last year as people thought they were.

They're better this year than they've showed so far.
- BINGO!

Process numbers are down. FL is run in a process not results based fashion and Gallant had disagreements with the direction of the team over the summer.

that's a mediocre roster that rode a division which collapsed and a lights out goaltending to a division title, then lost in the first round to another mediocre team. all of you statheads who creamed themselves when Florida signed Jason Demers will at some point come to realize this.

I actually agree - firing the guy at an away arena and not getting him transport home was a pretty Richard move.
- lumlums

Damn, poor millionaire had to hire his own cab.

I only saw one cliché.
Let me interpret it for you - You don't know what you're talking about when it comes to hockey and you are too caught up in your own opinion of yourself to realize that you are just as blind to adopting a view you're not familiar with as you say others are. You may WATCH a lot of hockey, as you say you do. But, you often make us wonder whether you've ever PLAYED at any level.
- Tonybere

Having played hockey is irrelevant really.

Understanding the basics of the game is highly relevant. And that is where Tanner fails in his analysis.

Hockey is not a binary 0 and 1 game.

So let's get this straight....

Florida was a good team last year, made a bunch of trades, signings, etc. based on analytics, and are now a worse team. It's the coach's fault they are not as good, even though he coached them last year so they get rid of him. (I get they have had a slew of injuries that have hurt them so far, but then why fire the coach if that is the excuse?).

Chiarelli is an idiot for trading Hall for Larsson, yet the Oilers are a much improved team, particularly defensively without losing much (if anything) offensively.

Russell is a terrible player yet the Oilers are 9-4-2 with Russell and 2-5 without him. (Small sample size, but drastic enough change to think he may have something to do with it.)
- NugentHallberle

LMAO what a joke you are.

Well this is a poop comment.
- Feds91Stammer

Nailed it!

"It is what it is"
- Feds91Stammer

Made me laugh.

Nah. You can take the puck away from somebody without hitting them. There are many many ways to gain possession. Hitting is just one, and it's the one most likely to lead to you taking a stupid penalty.
- BINGO!

Yup - Keith is a great example... he's had less than 100 hits in the last 4.25 seasons COMBINED, yet has been a very effective player over that time. Lidstrom was another guy who routinely had low hit totals, yet absolutely dominated the position.

Damn, poor millionaire had to hire his own cab.
- James_Tanner

Damn, a human being was embarrassed and humiliated . Maybe we can find pure analytics app to justify that.

I only saw one cliché.
Let me interpret it for you - You don't know what you're talking about when it comes to hockey and you are too caught up in your own opinion of yourself to realize that you are just as blind to adopting a view you're not familiar with as you say others are. You may WATCH a lot of hockey, as you say you do. But, you often make us wonder whether you've ever PLAYED at any level.
- Tonybere

I played the same amount of games as Scotty Bowman and Ken Hitchcock. I only played until I was 12 and my parents couldn't afford it anymore, being as we were dirt poor. I was actually a noteworthy goalie for my age, but wasn't able to play rep because we had no money.

Not sure how this is in anyway relevant though, as I write better blogs and offer better insight than a dozen ex-NHL players I could name.

Having played hockey is irrelevant really.

Understanding the basics of the game is highly relevant. And that is where Tanner fails in his analysis.

Hockey is not a binary 0 and 1 game.
- Mashadar

Yup - Scotty Bowman never played professionally, but that doesn't seem to have stopped him from doing "okay" within the game...

Once again, you are not listening.

Baseball is an event based game, where events are easier to categorize and have more statistic validity. Hockey is not an event based game, it is a flow with multiple events occurring between stoppage of plays. That makes statistic less congruent in their nature as there is a lot more subjectivity and causality in the capturing of the data points.

I did not say that there are no meaningful statistics captured for hockey, I stated they are not as statistically valid as those captured in other sports. And as such, do not have the inherent value associated with those, such as in baseball.

Hockey advanced stats, at best, are directional. Not even close to absolute, which is what you consistently present.

I just find it interesting that you do exactly the same thing as those the non-stats people you accuse of being ignorant, but from the opposite spectrum.

Your inability to see that is what makes you a terrible writer.
- Mashadar

Well ... he is what he is. A troll with a blog.

Do we know the whole story though?
- Feds91Stammer

Nope. But they could have done it better than that, surely?

Yup - Scotty Bowman never played professionally, but that doesn't seem to have stopped him from doing "okay" within the game...
- lumlums

Never heard of him.

We know that Kris Russel and Dan Giardi are bad players. We know that Brad Boyes and Lee Stepniak are good players.

- James Tanner

Right. That's what you know. I know that you didn't even spell three of their names right.
Stempniak is so good that he's played for 10 teams in 12 years. He's so good that he brings nothing to the table to make a team want to hold on to him.
Dan Girardi is an undrafted player who has now reached the top ten for games played for the Rangers in their 90 year history, averaging over 72 games per season, usually against top players. He has been vilified for one bad season, which was played on a surgically repaired ankle and a (in-season) cracked kneecap.
What you know about hockey reads like a comic book.

Nope. But they could have done it better than that, surely?
- lumlums

I mean it is just so 2016 of us to see a picture of him waiting at a curb with bags for us to go with the story of hey they just left him in the middle of nowhere. We don't know if they had a cab on the way for him. We don't know if they had airfare or a hotel for him. Just pure speculation based on a couple of pictures.

We know that Kris Russel and Dan Giardi are bad players. We know that Brad Boyes and Lee Stepniak are good players.

- James Tanner

Right. That's what you know. I know that you didn't even spell three of their names right.
Stempniak is so good that he's played for 10 teams in 12 years. He's so good that he brings nothing to the table to make a team want to hold on to him.
Dan Girardi is an undrafted player who has now reached the top ten for games played for the Rangers in their 90 year history, averaging over 72 games per season, usually against top players. He has been vilified for one bad season, which was played on a surgically repaired ankle and a (in-season) cracked kneecap.
What you know about hockey reads like a comic book.
- Tonybere

I think you should seek professional help.

So let's get this straight....

Florida was a good team last year,

They had successful, unsustainable results.


made a bunch of trades, signings, etc. based on analytics, and are now a worse team.


They will eventually be a much better team. It doesn't happen overnight.

It's the coach's fault they are not as good, even though he coached them last year so they get rid of him. (I get they have had a slew of injuries that have hurt them so far, but then why fire the coach if that is the excuse?).

The coach openly complained about moving guys like Gudbranson. He was not on board with the new direction. I do think they could have fired him in the summer, but like you said, he had successful results last year.



Chiarelli is an idiot for trading Hall for Larsson, yet the Oilers are a much improved team, particularly defensively without losing much (if anything) offensively.


The Oilers are improved because they drafted McDavid, something even Dave Nonis would have done. As to their improvement over last year, people seem to forget that they literally played zero games last year with their optimum roster. Had they had the balls to keep that team and try again while healthy, I have no doubt they'd be even better.



Russell is a terrible player yet the Oilers are 9-4-2 with Russell and 2-5 without him. (Small sample size, but drastic enough change to think he may have something to do with it.)
- NugentHallberle

82 games is barely a sufficient sample size, 22 games certainly is not. Their record with Russel in the lineup is a complete coincidence.

Damn, poor millionaire had to hire his own cab.
- James_Tanner

Given how you made disrespectful comments to a hockey blogger yesterday and patronisingly insulted her choice in religion, I really think that you have no concept of what respect is.

I'm on board with the stats train like you, but that doesn't mean that you get to be a Richard to somebody who has a different opinion than you - Even if you do happen to be smarter than that person (which in this case I sincerely doubt).

LMAO what a joke you are.
- Feds91Stammer

Good one, really proved me wrong there.

Nah. You can take the puck away from somebody without hitting them. There are many many ways to gain possession. Hitting is just one, and it's the one most likely to lead to you taking a stupid penalty.
- BINGO!