I've dug into advanced stats a bit this summer, and they are interesting. In all fairness to stats guys the are trying to provide context by drilling down deeper and deeper to make sense of things.
Bottom line, goals, assists and plus minus just tell a really good picture of what's going on, and I'm glad the world is looking at other measures ... even simple ones like skill of opposition, and zone starts.
A good example is Backlund last year ... he was doing a lot of things right before he started scoring. A hockey fan could see it ... getting the puck deep, getting the puck out, backchecking, finding the open man, putting the puck on net ... all of this could be seen in his jump in advanced stats better than it could be seen in his goals and assists.
Hartley saw it too ... not sure if he saw the advanced stats or what I was seeing, and adjusted his role.
Also looks like Hartley got wind of the new NHL trend to playing a defense pair with a center as well, as Giordano, Brodie and Buckland started becoming advanced stats monsters after Christmas.
I don't know where these stats are going, but I'm really glad they are in the news right now with both Brodie and Backlund looking for contracts. Better to see their value and get them locked up now, rather than bridge contracting both and losing them to free agency.
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