Some Sunday thoughts:
I Love the idea for the new World Cup. I love watching international competitions, I love hockey, and I love when we can combine both and get the best players to show up at it.
Some people are jammed up about there being an under 23 team and a European "Ryder Cup" team involved but I like that idea. It is a temporary solution while we buy more time for other countries to build up their infrastructure. Just a friendly reminder that socioeconomics is the biggest hinder to the growth of hockey. It costs a lot of money and not everybody has it. Some of these outlier countries don't have their programs in a place to compete with the big 6 (Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic) right now.
Slovakia is in a down period to where they do have some high level players in the NHL but they don't have nearly enough quality guys in reserve to field a competitive team. Countries like Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Belarus, Norway, Austria, Latvia don't have enough players to field competitive teams. Put them together and you have a super interesting blend of players that includes and is certainly not limited to: Kopitar, Hossa, Gaborik, Chara, Ehrhoff, Tatar, Halak, Zuccarrello, Vanek, Grabner, Boedker, Hiller, Niederreiter, Josi, and Grabovski.
It is also going to include some younger players in North America that otherwise wouldn't have made the cut. Remember when Sidney Crosby was told to stay home in the 2006 Olympics so they could keep Kris Draper around? With this setup you'd still get to see a guy like Crosby play. Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel are now sure fire candidates for this tournament and that is a great thing.
Just look at Kevin Allen's projected roster to see how many really fun players can now be included because they face an uphill battle to make Canada/USA rosters.
The point is to watch great hockey. Involving more great players is how you do that. How could somebody not like that?
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The NHL is using some futuristic player tracking technology this weekend at the All Star Game. This is cool stuff and will lead to some really great information. It is also going to lead to a lot of misinformed conclusions because not everybody that uses the data is going to know how to use it properly and look for the stuff that matters. Everybody will be on a learning curve with the new stuff, even the people who are among best at using current data. But the people who have a grasp on things now are going to be better acclimated to sift through the new stuff while obtaining a better grasp of it.
As basically everyone has already said, there is going to be snake oil sold by the drum in coming months. Gap between smart/dumb will grow.
— Travis Yost (@TravisHeHateMe) January 25, 2015
Lastly: possession time and meaningful puck possession, two different things.
— Travis Yost (@TravisHeHateMe) January 25, 2015Then there is this false assumption that the new data is an FU to people who use the current models centered around Corsi/Fenwick. False.
I find the idea that new data is bad for stats people in hockey funny. No one wants access to new/more (quality) data more.
— Jason (@Jay32600) January 25, 2015
If it shows that things we've done before are flawed, great we can improve our models. The goal here is to develop the best models we can,
— Jason (@Jay32600) January 25, 2015
not to prove corsi/fenwick are gospel. They are the best models we have with current data, that's all they are.
— Jason (@Jay32600) January 25, 2015
And it is distinctly possible that new models won't entirely replace our current models, but rather they will build on/improve them
— Jason (@Jay32600) January 25, 2015
Well said, Jason.
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I love that GoPro is officially a partner with the NHL now, but it will be a learning process. Just like how I mentioned above that there is a difference between using stats and understanding stats there is a difference between using Go Pro and understanding how to use GoPro.
I thought the camera angles used by NBCSN for the breakaway competition last night were completely awful. You couldn't see anything. They took what is one of the best events of the competition and ruined it for the most part. Show the normal angle and then supplement the GoPro stuff in afterwards.
The potential is there, we all saw that with the video that they released the other day. I suppose there are going to be some learning curves along the way.
**** GoPro complaints aside I like the skills competition. It is a nice break from the regular grind and it allows the players to flash some unique skill which is enjoyable to see.
While it has an element of corniness to it the Breakaway Challenge is about having fun and I think they certainly accomlished that last night. Brian Elliott and Vladimir Tarasenko's teammate act was clever. Johansen playing to the crowd with an Ohio State Jersey was great, involving a kid was good (especially because it led to Johnny Gaudreau being used in the same capacity) and who can honestly get upset about seeing the most skilled Flying V ever assembled?
It seems so dopey to me that people would complain about this stuff.
That's all for now
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