Using Data to Understand Hockey
With today’s rumours that the Arizona Coyotes may soon be on the the move to Utah, the most interesting thing to me is how quickly they could become a contending team. The Coyotes have added a lot of good young talent over the past several drafts however they have been unable to spend on good … Read more
Last week I wrote about SportLogiq and its Expected Goals model and how it compared to public expected goal models. I just wanted to expand on that a little by comparing four public expected goal models and how they performed over the past 5 seasons. The most rudimentary method to evaluate an expected goals model … Read more
This post on Twitter the other day really sent me down a rabbit hole for a good portion of the past two days. I think evaluating and comparing models is both interesting and valuable. Where do models differ? Where are they the same? Do the differences expose potential biases in one or both models? However … Read more
So, I have just rolled out Puckalytics 2.0. I am starting small but will grow over time. My goal with my new Puckalytics site is not to recreate what you can find on other sites like Natural Stat Trick or Evolving Hockey or what I had on my stats sites before I joined the Calgary … Read more
We often use assists as an indicator of playmaking ability and there is often a preference for primary assists since these are the ones that directly lead to the shot that led to the goal. However, not all primary assists are created equal if we want to use them to measure playmaking ability. Over the … Read more
Last week I looked at the relationship between player size and playoff success at the individual level (i.e. do taller/heavier players go deeper into the playoffs). What I found what that bigger defensemen generally go deeper into the playoffs than smaller defensemen but there is no relationship for forwards – both big an small forwards … Read more
We all believe that NHL players are getting smaller and more skilled but is it true and are the smaller more skilled players leading teams to playoff success? This all started by my (and others) observations that recent Stanley Cup champions have had big defensemen. Just look at last years Vegas Golden Knights. Hague 6’6″ … Read more