Using Data to Understand Hockey
My life status is changing. My wife was able to take early retirement and in conjunction with that I have decided to join her in retirement (or at minimum semi-retirement) life. So that means some changes to TheStanleyCap.com. The Background When CapFriendly.com shut down a few years ago I began to think about whether I … Read more
The David Castillo, Dallas Stars fan, posted on Bluesky saying ‘nope’ to a possible Larkin-Robertson trade with an graphic that clearly showed Robertson as the better player. Without any intention to be critical of Castillo’s opinion, which I largely agree with anyway, I replied with the following: Centers have more value than wingers and Robertson … Read more
When I was with the Calgary Flames I developed a series of player archetypes that I think really helped understand the strengths and weaknesses of players. I’ve been reluctant to try to do this publicly because I know I cannot do as good of a job as I was able to do with the data … Read more
The Toronto Maple Leafs have missed the playoffs for the first time in since 2016, or rather the first time in the Auston Matthews era. Not only did they not make the playoffs, they were also a bottom five team with just 79 points, a 29 point drop from 2024-25, and ahead of only the … Read more
Last spring after Carolina exited the playoffs against Florida I wrote an article about how Carolina’s weakness is the inside game. By the inside game I mean generating shots from the slot and preventing shots against from the slot. To summarize, Carolina isn’t great at either. They take a higher percentage of their shots from … Read more
As a result of trading a number of core players the past several seasons, the Calgary Flames have accumulated a large number of draft picks in the 2026 NHL draft. We all know that more draft picks are better and higher draft picks are better, but realistically, to what extent could this draft be a … Read more
We know Carolina is a good puck possession team. They have been for years. They generate a lot of shots and they prevent shots against. However, their inability to dominate the inside game, at both ends of the rink, puts a cap on their playoff success. The Offense Using my shot zone analytics tool at … Read more
I have previously written about how teams with bigger defensemen have seen more success in the playoffs (here and here) but I haven’t posted anything about how they do this and specifically what statistics bigger defensemen impact. I plan to take a look at some of that in this post. Everything in this post is … Read more
The Ottawa Senators lost their first 3 games of the first round playoff series against the Leafs and looked all but dead. However they have managed to fight back, win two games, and make it a series against the Maple Leafs. How have they done it? By playing sound defensive hockey. Using the Shot Analytics … Read more
So, there is some strange stuff happening in the NHL in recent years and I am not quite sure what to make of it. Let me explain. This first chart shows the percentage of shot attempts that were blocked, missed the net or were on net. This is 5v5 regular season data only, as will … Read more