Quote:
Originally Posted by mikephoen
One thing that drives me insane with 'advanced' stats is the notion that taking a shot and having it blocked is a good thing. Where did this come from? If your shot is blocked that is a giveaway! It ends your possession, it doesn't improve it!
How often does a shot that is blocked result in a scoring chance for the shooting team? Almost never? At best it is like a dump in and leads to a puck battle for the offensive team. More likely, it is just a giveaway. And sometimes it's a giveaway where the shooter has taken himself out of defensive position, which leads to an odd man rush the other way.
This is what happened a ton when Russell and Wideman were on the ice last year. Russell blocks the shot. Wideman or the centre recover the puck. Quick first pass to a winger and the Flames are out of the zone and on the attack. Then this dude checks his spread sheet and says 'Another bad shift for Wideman and Russell! Derp!'
Start scoring shot blocks as take always and getting a shot blocked as a giveaway and maybe some of these 'advanced' stats will begin to pass the eyeball test.
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Additionally, once you have blocked a shot you are not likely to be the guy passing the puck out afterwards. Could that be a reason these passing metrics don't favor Russell? I think so. But yes, if you take a shot that gets blocked it does show that you had possession of the puck, but it also shows that you wasted that possession.