Iron Crotch

I found a variant of this exact post when I was searching through old threads - you were a staunch supporter of CoHo then and still are! :)

A couple of streaks were broken last night: 1. We scored a first period goal for the first time in 14 games 2. We finally got a goal from a defensman having gone the entire season without one up until Risto's goal in the 1st Since I'm "working from home" today (aka blatantly wasting time) I did a search. There are a ton of "CoHo is the least of our problems" posts over the past couple of years. In general, I think fans overvalue offensive numbers and overlook defensive play for forwards. Last year CoHo was scoring, so most gave him a pass.

Posted 23 February 2013 - 09:08 PM Good thing Darcy gutted the team of veteran centers and entrusted the top line center spot to an unproven player with little-to-no defensive ability. CoHo was a -3 tonight and statistically is the most scored on center in the NHL. Good day, eh. (there are a few posts criticizing CoHo, but you are right that the majority of posters have historically defended him)

There was an article last year written by one of the "advanced" stats guys who showed (according to his stats) that Hodgson was one of the worst defensive forward in the entire NHL last year. One or two folks around here were riding that train, but we got derailed by the masses who were enamored with Hodgson's scoring ability. Not the article, but entertaining: http://vansunsportsb...bad-at-defence/

Hackett's play calling is terrible. I don't mind conservative play calling when you have a very good defense, like we have this year. I do mind when the play calling doesn't adapt to the down and game situation. I've seen too much of the latter this year.

The Sabres get all the calls against them too. Jesus hates Buffalo. :devil: In all seriousness, there is empirical evidence that home teams get more calls than away teams. We get some home calls and just don't realize it (perceptual bias). But, we certainly don't get the road calls. My Dad's theory was always that none of the refs wanted to be in Buffalo in January... they'd much rather be in Miami that time of year.

As I rewatch the game it is clear that we have only one good forward line (Moulson - Girgs - Ennis) and one good defensive pair (Risto - Zadorov). Risto and Zadorov are the real deal. Beyond Myers, our other three defensemen are just bad. Benoit and Weber got owned on the first two goals. At least we can have two reasonable pairs when Gorges gets back. Our bottom two lines are useless offensively ...then there is Hodgson who is clearly in Nolan's dog house. If we had a good center to take his place I think would could have another okay line with Stewart and Stafford. I dropped a ton of anti-Hodgson posts in last year's GDTs. He is, an always will be, a terrible defensive player due to laziness and poor positioning. He has hands, but there is too much else wrong with his game for me to want him on my team.

And once again the refs sodomize the Bills with a disputable call. That safety is a killer.

I'm definitely a "Boobie" fan. :) That and our defense needs to tackle better.

It's Gus' team.

Time to watch football... Oh, and Vanek. F him. :devil:

Great play by Zemgus to beat the icing call. I like it when our youngsters score!

McDavid showers in grain alcohol... He killed Wolfman Jack with a trident... He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls...

Voila: https://www.govtrack...congress/bills/ More specifically: https://www.govtrack...111/hr3590/text ...the above site tracks everything, whether it passes or not (e.g. all of the time-wasting partisan garbage that has no chance of passing is listed on govtrack).

The Kings - Ducks game last night was awesome.

I'll watch the Bills game live and watch the Sabres lose afterward via DVR... sleep is the enemy.

Friend of Pete Peters, maybe.

Descent 4th Period article on which players might be in the future plans of the team: http://www.thefourth.../buf141112.html

Having three first round picks this year gives us a lot of room to "sweeten" a deal.

I vividly remember those teams from a few years ago absolutely sleepwalking through games. No energy. Just sitting there quiet on the bench and rolling out for listless shift after shift. Remember the monster losing streak in January (?) of Lindy's second-to-last year that led up to the Pommer trade? I actually think we've improved in the energy and "response to crap" department. But, we still have a few guys who lack heart. I agree that someone should have helped out Little Tyler - either Myers or Girgs, I think. Does Girgs ever fight?

:thumbsup: I DVR'd the game and just watched it (was at the Preds - Oilers game tonight) and the pair of Risto and Zadorov was moving the puck faster than the other pairs. Those two were generating offensive chances with their passing much of the game. To me Risto looks better and better each game. Kid will be a good one. And, Zadorov had one rough play that resulted in a goal against, but overall was solid. I don't mind a young kid like Zadorov making aggressive mistakes... I do mind a total whiff by a 6-year veteran (Myers) that directly results in a goal against. Your supposed #1 defenseman needs to do better than that. Period.

This we can agree on. Ratios and qualified ratios in my world hardly qualify as "advanced." Fenwick, Corsi, PDO, etc. are crude measures of puck possession given the underlying assumption that goals are random and thus having the puck more than the other guys leads to more shots, which leads to more goals. Easy. Showing a correlation between goals for/against and puck possession is useful but also fairly obvious, I think. The larger question is which guys do I need on my team and which guys don't I need on my team to improve these stats... so in this thread the question is should Myers stay or go? Do all the within-team comparisons you want with these marginally useful stats, but it is very difficult to accurately compare across teams because the relevant variables go well beyond shots, zone starts, and the things that are currently being measured. That's the problem as I see it. Since the error term is very large, a GM still has to rely mostly on what he sees with his eyes. My eyes tell me we can do better than Myers. ...and to be a jerk about it, I also think the "advanced stats" say so as well. ;) As I see it, many are correctly pointing out that Myers is the best of what we currently have, which is probably true. But, I still don't think that means he is what this team needs in the long run. So, if we can flip him for a better fit, I'm in.

Goals for and goals against are really ALL that matters. Hits, being in position, looking good on the rush, standing up for your teammates, etc. isn't the most direct measure of what wins games. A fundamental rule of statistical analysis is to measure what matters most. By extension, a reasonable theory: If a team can't score, those who are playing most contribute to (rather than inhibit) that lack of scoring.

Nice! :thumbsup: