Jump to content

  • Welcome to our Blogs

    Our blogs are written by members of HockeyForums.net.    Many of our blogs are provided by our partnering websites.  If you have your own website and would like to share a blog with us in it's entirety here please post it below with a link to the original.  For questions please  "Contact Us" for website partnering info.   

Blogs

More Hockey Stats

On Intangibles (a small addendum)

Original post.   One "intangible" being tossed around is "motivation" of the players. Which brings memories of an episode I was witness to.   In 2003/04, in the Israeli Top Tier Chess League (which is indeed no slouch) our club managed to assemble an outstanding team, featuring, among others, a former Champion of Russia and a former Champion of Europe. I was part of the management team, and orchestrated bringing the first of the two, who also happened to be my childhood frien
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On Intangibles. Carpe Jugulum.

Original post.   Often the general managers, the coaches and the players talk about "intangible values". Sometimes it's about the "locker room contributions". Sometimes it's about "passion". In my opinion, these two are actually negligible and in certain cases even harmful. I remember such references, especially the latter one, made about Israeli soccer players, and that usually meant that the player doesn't have a lot of talent to go along, but contributes a lot of passion into
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

2
More Hockey Stats

On Players Evaluation - Part VII and Final (Bundling it all up)

Original post.   Now that we obtained a way to estimate players' performances for a season, we can move on to estimate their performances for a specific game.   For the season of interest, we compute the average against for each teams, just like we computed the season averages. I.e. we calculate how many goals, shots, hits, blocks, saves are made on average against each team. Thus we obtain the team against averages Tavg. The averages are then further divided
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On Players Evaluation - Part VI (Skater's [and Goaltender non-SVP] Elo)

Original Post   The most important conclusion of the last chapter that dealt with goalies' Elos is that it is defined by actual performance of a goaltender versus the expected performance of the team he is facing. That is the approach we are going to inherit for evaluating skaters.   For the start we compute the average stats of a league for each season. We do that for most of the stats that are measured, from goals and assists to faceoffs taken, up to the time on ice for the goa
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On Players Evaluation - Part V (Goaltender's Elo)

Original post. The goalkeeper is half of the whole team   Soviet proverb from Lev Yashin's times. After a foray into the calmer lands of teams' evaluation using the Elo rating, it's time to turn our attention to the really juicy stuff - the evaluation of a single player. And we'll start with the most important one - the goaltender. DISCLAIMER: this evaluation concept is still a work in progress and one of several possible implementation
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

2
More Hockey Stats

A small digression - about bye weeks.

Original post.   One of the greatest chess methodologists, if not the greatest one, the sixth World Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik, wrote in one of his books (about the 1948 World Chess Championship Tournament):A tournament must go on a uniform schedule, so that the participants would get used to a certain pace of competition. ... The Dutch organizers neglected that. They didn't take into account that plenty of free days (because of the holidays, and because the number of the participants
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On Players Evaluation - Part IV (Teams Elo Projections)

Original post. Catching up... We left our reader at the point where we demonstrated how to produce Elo ratings for hockey teams over season (and over postseason too, if anyone wondered) and how to apply it to the up and coming next games of the rated teams. However, in its main eparchy, chess, Elo is rarely used to produce single match outcome projections. It's much more popular when used to create a long-term projection, such as the whole tournament, which in chess lasts between f
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On Players Evaluation - Part III (Teams Elo)

Part I. Part II.   Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are camping in the countryside. In the middle of the night Holmes wakes up Watson: 'Watson, what do you think these stars are telling us? 'Geez, Holmes, I don't know, maybe it's going to be a nice weather tomorrow? 'Elementary, Watson! They are telling us our tent has been stolen!   Iconic Soviet joke.   Estimating a hockey player via Elo ratings is a highly complex task. Therefore, we shall wield the d
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On Players Evaluation - Part II (Elo)

Happy New Year everyone! Original post.   The Elo rating system is the system used for evaluation and comparison of competitors. Up until today it's been mostly applied in the domain of board games, most well-known in chess, but also in disciplines such as draughts or go. The Elo system, named after its inventor, Prof. Arpad Elo, who first published it in the 1950s in the US, is capable to produce a reliable score expectation for an encounter between two competitors who oppose eac
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On Player Evaluation Systems - Part I

Original post.   In the previous post we mentioned the Goodhart's Law and how it threatens any evaluation of an object. We said that it traps the Corsi/Fenwick approach because it substitutes the complex function of evaluation of a hockey player by a remarkably simple stat - shots.   Goodhart's law is not alone. In any research it is preceded by the two pillars: Popper's law of falsifiability and the Occam's razor. A theory willing to bear any scientific value must comply with
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

3
More Hockey Stats

On The NHL Scoring System (Part II)

Original post.   Goodhart's law is the bane, the safeguard and the watchdog of everyone who tries to make conclusions from sample data. The "Schroedinger Cat of Social Sciences" practically says, if you want people to do X, but you reward them for doing Y, they will be doing Y rather than X. We start seeing that in the "possession analytics", based on shots taken, that the players begin to shoot from everywhere to get their possession ratings up. But we digress - the topic is the scori
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

0
More Hockey Stats

On The NHL Scoring System (Part I)

Original post.   There was nothing wrong with ties. The 2-1-0 point system works fine in various sports around the world. It's just ... not fitting into the mind of a North American sports fan. "Who won?" - "It was a tie." - "Who won on a tiebreak?" Basketball and baseball do not have ties, and American Football has them at a rate of 1-2 times per whole season. So more than ten years ago NHL went with the flow and abolished ties, introducing the shootout, and with a twist, where the te
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

7
More Hockey Stats

Talent, Skill and the NHL

Original post On Talent In General   When you want to do some useful work, you need a skill to do that work. Naturally, one doesn't need a skill to tweet, but that's not a useful work to start with. But to do stuff that actually profits you a certain level of skill is absolutely necessary.   In order to have the skill, you need to learn it, and then to improve it. And there are only two basic factors that define how well you learn and improve in the skill - the talent an
More Hockey Stats

More Hockey Stats

6
The Play It Forward Foundation

Play It Forward Winter Skate

Play It Forward Winter Skate When: Friday, December 30 at 6 PM - 9 PM Cost: FREE Where: Princeton Day School Lisa McGraw Ice Rink 650 Great Rd, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 RSVP Here   Join Play It Forward for FREE open skating! Our way of giving a little back to everyone that has supported and helped us over the past year. Skate rentals will be provided while supplies last. Enjoy cookies, hot chocolate, face painting, a holiday photo booth and more all at no cost!  Bring th
pags569

pags569

0
The Play It Forward Foundation

All #GivingTuesday Funds Will be Donated To Help Hockey Family

Mick Deaver is a 17 year old teenager whose one love is playing hockey.  Mick was living in Boston and living out his dream and hopefully continuing on after he graduated from high school. On Friday, November 18, 2016 Mick was playing hockey for the Boston Bandits-Elite on the road in New Jersey with his parents, Shawn and Jennifer, watching the game streaming online. As Mick turned, to change directions, he lost the edge on one of his skates. On his way to the ice, there was a player
pags569

pags569

0
Inside Edge Hockey News

Arizona Stability?

Arizona Stability?   After years of low attendance, poor revenue, and controversy with the City of Glendale the Arizona Coyotes may be moving to a direction of stability.  On Monday the Coyotes announced a proposal for a new hockey facility.  The plans are for a 16,000 seat NHL arena and a 4,000 seat multi sport arena and practice facility.  This complex will be shared with the Arizona Sun Devils.    This is a strong step in the right direction.  It is a proposal, not a
InsideEdge

InsideEdge

0
Inside Edge Hockey News

It's NOT The Blood ON The Ice...It's The Blood IN The Ice

It’s NOT The Blood ON The Ice…It’s The Blood IN The Ice   HOCKEY…FAMILY…two words of six letters each, both ending in “y”.  Many people would say “hockey” and “family” have little else in common, but I beg to differ…and strongly so.  For me, hockey is all about family…in so many ways and at so many levels.  There are those that see the “violence” of hockey and would swear up and down that hockey is not a family sport.   To those of us that are members of the family of hoc
InsideEdge

InsideEdge

0
Oilfield Hockey Blog

What To Look Forward To During The 100th Year Anniversary Of The NHL

It’s the 100th year anniversary of the NHL and things are looking festive for the 2016/17 NHL season. It’s also the 100th year anniversary of the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as the 50th year anniversary of the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings. As a side note, it’s also the 50th consecutive year that the Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup but that’s none of my business. Jokes aside, the 2016/2017 NHL season is the season to celebr
oilfieldhockey

oilfieldhockey

0
Oilfield Hockey Blog

Symbolism Behind The New Jerseys Introduced For The NHL's 100th Anniversary Season

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 100 years since the NHL has been breathing life and a lot of rich history has developed since it’s humble inauguration. We saw so much change throughout the NHL’s history, it’s almost mind boggling in a way of what the league went through and how it has evolved during it’s history. Many things have changed in the NHL since day one but the one big department that has been evolved with the game are the jerseys hockey players wear. The material
oilfieldhockey

oilfieldhockey

0
Inside Edge Hockey News

10 Crazy Predictions for 2017

10 Crazy Predictions for 2017   -       Patrick Kane will fall out of the Top 10 in scoring.  Sorry Chicago this year will be a little more difficult than you are used too. -       Winnipeg Jets rookie Patrick Laine will dominate the rookie class.  Laine along with Jets captain Blake Wheeler will lead the Jets to a wildcard spot.  -       Semyon Varlamov will not be the starter for the Colorado Avalanche come All-Star break, and it won’t be because of injury. -    
InsideEdge

InsideEdge

1
Inside Edge Hockey News

Stalemate in Winnipeg

Stalemate in Winnipeg   The Winnipeg Jets opened the season with a victory over the Carolina Hurricanes and then dropped a heartbreaker against rival Minnesota.  Not a terrible start for a team missing one of their key defenseman.  Restricted free-agent Jacob Trouba is still out of the lineup due to a contract dispute.  The young defenseman has requested a trade out of Winnipeg, but general manager Kevin Cheyeldayoff is digging his heals in and taking his time with the dilemma. 
InsideEdge

InsideEdge

0
NHL's Weekly Rankings, News, and Notes

Week 1 Power Rankings

What a first few days of the NHL season! Austin Matthews and Connor McDavid are showing why they were taken number 1 overall. Toronto continues to suffer bad loses. The Penguins are flying without Sidney Crosby right now.   Here are my thoughts on the teams after the first week:   1- Washington Capitals (ranking last week: 1) - Caps lost in a shootout to the Penguins. They are still one of, if not the best team in the league. Over the next few weeks, we will find
no1sjsharksfan

no1sjsharksfan

2
×
×
  • Create New...