Quote:
Originally Posted by Poe969
No, I didn't ask what his fancy stats were I asked you to tell me about the fancy stats. I've asked a lot of people about corsi and fenwick and all these other things and the most common answer is "it's complicated" followed by "I don't really know everything about it..."
To me, fancy stats are about as useful as +/- I'm sure they're not completely useless but I don't think they really matter much at all. A lot of hockey was played before the introduction of fancy stats and I'm sure a lot of teams still don't really care too much about those fancy stats...except maybe the coyotes! Being a fancy stat master GM is really helping that team make huge strides!
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Just because many don't take the time to understand "fancy stats" doesn't make them any less relevant.
I'd be shocked if every team doesn't look at a whole host of fancy stats, not just the Coyotes.
Calgary employs a full time person who in charge of these matters, and others on staff pitch in and help various aspects of those stats.
They matter very much. They can tell you if a team has been getting its fair share of randomness and is likely to get better or worse. Teams seldom get results materially different than their fancy stats suggest for very long, but in an age where teams are so close to each other, and the margins are all so slim, randomness will likely determine at the end of the day who wins the Stanley Cup.
There was a time when certain teams where clearly better than others, and their chances of winning the cup exceeded others by a reasonable margin. Teams like the old Canadians, Islanders, Oilers, even the more recent Hawk teams (first 2 SC's), were better than everyone.
Now, there are many teams who are within spitting distance of each other. The simple bounce of the puck will go along way in determining who advances in the playoffs and who sits at home.