BagBoy

Let’s talk “analytics”, shall we? As will become obvious to proponents of it, I’m with those who think it’s complete horseshlt. I am biased against it, but I’m not inflexible. After all I was initially shocked in a bad way about this Kane trade today. But now, after reading all of the opinions here today, and reflecting objectively, I feel great about it! So for all you proponents of analytics, convince us doubters! First of all, this analytics business in hockey sure seemed to spring up suspiciously right after the Moneyball movie. I thought it was a good movie (and factual), and I think analytics from a baseball perspective makes perfect sense, and I believe the data supports that. I’m an Orioles fan, and I think Earl Weaver was a genius. He was the first guy to track specific pitcher vs. hitter stats back in the early 70’s (on hand-written index cards, not computers btw) and he used them brilliantly. But here’s the thing…hockey isn’t baseball. My understanding of the Corsi is that at its core, it is simply trying to quantify puck possession, since there is nobody out there tabulating the actual time of possession, like they do in soccer. Maybe it’s time to start tabulating time of possession. I think that would be a very informative stat. Anyway the Corsi is obviously a flawed way of quantifying possession. For example, those Soviet teams of the 70’s and 80’s virtually always had an obvious advantage in time of possession over Team Canada. They did this by doing precisely the opposite of what the Corsi rewards, namely being very selective with their shots, and passing the puck back and forth until they got a good shot opportunity. So, if we’re trying to quantify puck possession, don’t you think counting passes would be a much more valid piece of the puzzle than how many times you got your shot blocked? I sure do. Basically all it is is the SOG plus missed shots and blocked shots, so this means the more times you get your shots blocked or you miss the net, the “better” you are. So therefore, if a player comes down the wing and shoots wide causing the puck to go all the way back to his own zone, he still gets a “plus”. Or how about when a D-man gets the puck at the point, has time to wrist it toward the net, but chooses instead to crank a full wind up, and then the opposing winger blocks the shot and creates a breakaway for himself? The D-man gets a Corsi “plus” for this. I don’t doubt for a second that higher Corsi numbers have and always will correlate positively with better teams. I’m not saying the stat is “wrong” per se. It’s just a stupid stat. Teams with the highest ‘goals for’ vs. ‘goals against’ ratios also tend to be the best teams, but nobody gets excited about that stat. Plain old-fashioned shots on goal (SOG) is a far superior stat to the Corsi, and the only reason the Corsi appears to have any relevance is because SOG’s are the vast majority of its data points. Every SOG “could” be a goal. Zero missed nets and almost zero blocked shots can be goals. Missing the net is very frequently a bad play for the offense, and blocked shots are almost never good for an offense. These are not stats that should be rewarded. No coach of mine ever gave me a pat on the back for missing the net or getting a shot blocked. I realize I haven’t addressed the iCorsi stuff or the Fenwick stuff, or any of the rest of it, because admittedly I have dismissed them all as more of the same. If any of that is actually worthwhile, I need to be illuminated. Please discuss.

^^ Oh, come on man! I'm not gonna sit here and tell you CNN is god's gift to journalism, because they certainly are not. But if you're lumping them in with your "liberal media conspiracy", then your objectivity is questionable at best. My aunt dislikes CNN as much as you evidently do, but she thinks they're too far to the right. You are both equally wrong. CNN is intentionally trying to be as milquetoast as possible.

I don't buy it. Hasek was a flash in the pan compared to Brodeur. 21 NHL seasons, 691 wins, 125 shutouts, 17 playoffs, and oh yeah, by the way 3 cups, not to mention 2 gold medals. Hasek won individual awards for a few years, but Brodeur was a vital part of a successful team for 2 decades. Brodeur was also the best puck-handling goalie ever, and as a result oponents had to change the way they approached entering the offensive zone, lest Brodeur end up with a shutout and 3 assists. This allowed New Jersey to perfect the neutral zone trap. He wasn't just one of the greatest goalies ever, he was practically a 3rd defenseman. The trapezoids behind the nets only happened because of Brodeur. Look, I know Dom was untouchable for a few years, but when you look at it objectively from a historical perspective, Brodeur had a far better career and far bigger impact on the game itself.

Dom was unquestionably the best for a few years, but career-wise, I'll take Brodeur.

IMO Brodeur was the best goalie of this era (1980 onward), with Roy 2nd and Dom 3rd. All he did was win. He was fantastic from day 1 for almost half his life.

Fair enough. Morale aside, I guess my main point was the economic benefit of bringing them home. Unfortunately, I think we need to stay in Korea. One other pet peeve of mine concerning the military budget is legislators fighting to keep outdated weapons systems alive simply because they benefit their constituents (and only their constituents). This is wasteful and counter-productive.

Indeed. But why don’t we put even more of that $640 billion into the US economy? We only need a fraction of the troops we have in Germany, Italy, and the UK. Why don’t we just simply bring these thousands of troops home and let them buy their houses, cars, sofas and beer here in the good ole’ USA? That would be a big plus for our economy, and probably a big boost in morale for the vast majority of the troops and their families who come back.

Ban Ki-moon and the French government are no longer referring to ISIS by that name. Ban Ki-moon is calling them NINS - non-Islamic non-state. The French are using Da'ish which in Arabic has violent connotations and also rebukes any concept of statehood. Whatever you call these savages, they are demanding $200 million for two Japanese hostages. I would really like to see the Japanese raise this money immediately, and then give it to the Kurdish Peshmerga. Come to think of it, is anybody on any of those money-raising websites trying to generate money for the Peshmerga? Didn't some guy get 10 grand to help him make potato salad lately? If there's a way I can send the Peshmerga $20, I'd be glad to do it, and I bet a lot of others would too.

We mustn't forget about Turgenev!

I dunno. Maybe I'm just afraid that we end up dealing Myers somewhere, and then he actually lives up to the Chara 2.0 expectations/hopes when he's gone. Also, O'Reilly's output is noticeably down this year.

IMHO you guys are over-rating O'Reilly. I'm not saying he has no value, but I wouldn't even think about taking him for Myers straight up, and I'm not really that high on Myers.

That's practically un-American! After all, your little alternate reality has no place for the oil industry or the military-industrial complex! Just being cynical, man. I agree with your sentiments 100%.

The first 2 years of the Hurricanes’ existence, they played here in Greensboro. Greensboro’s not exactly a backwater town, but compared to Raleigh and Charlotte, it is a distant third in hockey sophistication here in NC. I went to a Sabres game in Greensboro with 9 people from work once and it was a blast. Naturally, the other 9 were cheering for Carolina and berating me the whole time (totally in fun). There was some other guy in our vicinity wearing a black Goatshead Miroslav Satan jersey. I tried to explain to some poor yocal (not one of my 9 pals) that this was not some sort of satanic reference, but he was hearing none of it. At some point very late in the game, Dom pulled some kind of amazing sequence of inhuman saves that to a layperson simply did not appear possible. I screamed “He’s the best goalie in the world!!!”. Most of the Canes fans around me (not my work pals) wanted to punch me, and I probably would have enjoyed it if someone had!

qwksndmonster, please keep the Django avatar! That guy was fantastic!

As cool as the other side of the pillow...

A total wag of the finger to the Swiss. They are clearly headhunting for Ehlers. Not cool.

When CenterIce forces me to watch a NESN broadcast of the Bruins, I have to mute it.

I just saw this a few days ago and really enjoyed it.

Be sure to watch that vid posted by Swipe in the comments ("Boston announcers biased to the point of insanity"). Lucic is getting his asch handed to him, but pencil neck Edwards is apparently watching some other fight in Imaginationland.

I had never seen Eichel before and I thought he looked really good, even with all the hype.

Gil retired as the 6th highest scorer in NHL history. And as much as I agree Dom was the best goalie of his era, "no one is close" reflects a tunnel vision that doesn't give the goalies of the past nearly enough credit. Google Jacques Plante, Georges Vezina or even Ken Dryden.

Well it won't open at all in theaters. The cinema chains are the sell outs here, not Sony. DVD or on demand is another story. I hope Sony makes a mint on this picture. And they probably need it to, in order to shore up their glaring shortcomings in the cyber security department.

Indeed. Makes me wonder if Sony created all this hubbub themselves for that exact reason.

terribly sorry. I missed the one vote stipulation. Now corrected.

Lazar's first NHL goal - the first of many I think.