In Baseball advanced stats have been around longer, and they still don't predict anything at the team level. Good at looking at individuals but ignores a lot of other variables when building a team.
Look at the last couple years, the Oakland A's have still yet to win a world series. Yet a team that seems to spit in the face of all the advanced stats has won 3 out of 5 world series, on what advanced stats call "luck".
IMO Advanced stats are a great tool, they show you some really interesting metrics, and can be great at comparing individual performance but they have some flaws at the team level.
I think a couple of issues with advanced stats are that they discount elite goaltending (it's not "luck" that Nashville, Montreal, and New York have high PDO) and style of play.
Shot blocking is a legitimate strategy. A smaller, speedier team like the Flames will likely be a poor possession since they create more off the rush and struggle in the defensive zone at containing bigger forwards leading to possession in the zone against them.
The other issue is that it is really only good at evaluating team play in-season, roster turnover happens at such a high rate that it's not going to predict things year to year for teams.
Let's look at Corsi Close from last year and what it "predicted this year"
West Top 8 (4/8):
LA
Chicago
San Jose
St. Louis
Vancouver
Dallas
Anaheim
Arizona
East Top 8 (4/8):
Boston
New Jersey
New York
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Detroit
Columbus
Florida
So last year's Corsi numbers seemed to accurately predict who would be good this year at a 50% clip.
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