The advanced stats advocates are drinking the same koolaid as Lowe and McTavish:
IJay Palansky from The Toronto Star:
In one recent example, Sportsnet ran an article on Nov. 20 headlined “Flames and Oilers Heading In Opposite Directions.” The headline is the one thing we can agree on.
Calgary and Edmonton are indeed two teams heading in opposite directions, but it’s not the directions the author and most other people think.
The writer contrasted Calgary’s surprising 12-6-2 start at the time with Edmonton’s disappointing 6-11-2, and marvelled at the Flames’ “character” and “courage,” and delicately declaring that “Calgary has more guts than a killing floor.”
Fortunately, analytics gives us much better metrics for gauging performance. Twenty games isn’t a huge sample, but there’s enough to get a sense of what’s going on.
And what’s going on is that, despite its uncanny ability to give up prime scoring chances with disturbing regularity, Edmonton is a better team than Calgary.
Much like the Leafs’ early success last season, Calgary’s start this year is smoke and mirrors.
I guess there's no arguing, right? The "advanced stats" say the Oilers are better than the Flames so goals for and against, records and head-to-head results be damned; they ARE a better team. The circular reasoning employed here reminds me of the reasoning of a religious fanatic.
I hope the Oilers hire this guy. They deserve each other.