Recent Posts
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Mediocrity Gets You Pears – Lightning vs Hawks Preview, Pregame Thread, Dog Grooming
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Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
Guilty As Charged, But Dammit It Ain’t Right: Raw ChargeAs far as matchups in the first half of November are concerned, they don’t get much more exciting than this on paper. Both the Hawks and the Lightning have legitimate hopes of emerging from their respective conferences in late May while playing an electrifying (GET IT) style of up tempo hockey. Tonight will be Tampa’s lone appearance in the United Center this season, which adds to the uniqueness of the matchup. Meanwhile a national TV audience gets the Sabres and Blues over on NBCSN, so nicely done by the NHL once again.
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NHL Teams & Analytics: The Devil Is In The Details
The more I work with microstats and tracking the formation habits of teams, the more I get into discussions with people who say “there’s no way teams actually do that” or something very similar. Many of the people telling me this are very smart hockey people from all areas of the sport, not just the stats circles I run in and it makes me increasingly wonder about the processes currently used in hockey. It makes me question whether I am working off of the same information as the people who are closer to the game.
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NHL Teams & Analytics: The Devil Is In The Details
The more I work with microstats and tracking the formation habits of teams, the more I get into discussions with people who say “there’s no way teams actually do that” or something very similar. Many of the people telling me this are very smart hockey people from all areas of the sport, not just the stats circles I run in and it makes me increasingly wonder about the processes currently used in hockey. It makes me question whether I am working off of the same information as the people who are closer to the game.
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High On The Hog: McNeill Makes With The Boom
The Rockford IceHogs have been on fire to start the 2014-15 AHL season. Win or lose, this is going to be a fun team to watch. Heading West on I-90, it’s mostly win for the Hogs.
Rockford has won a franchise-record eight straight and is 10-2-0-1 in a baker’s dozen of games. The IceHogs are on top of the Midwest Division and hold the second spot in the AHL’s Western Conference standings. Mark McNeill’s goal explosion has been a big part of the current surge.
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Morning Links 11/10/14
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Too Many Cooks – Hawks 5, Sharks 2
Box Score
Event Summary
War On IceIn spite of the Hawks jumping out in front of the Sharks with three goals from defensemen in rapid succession, there ended up being some tense moments from the second period on through the middle stages of the third.
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Sharks At Blackhawks – Preview/Pre-Game Thread/Circle Pit
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Game Time: 6:00PM
TV/Radio: WGN for both
Rudderless: Fear The Fin, Battle Of CaliforniaYou ever have one of those problems that you can’t quite figure out a solution to? Maybe you’ve tried everything – duct tape, WD-40, cursing, prayers – but nothing seems to work out. That’s kind of where the Sharks are at this point. This is a team that should have beaten the Kings last year in the playoffs. It’s a team that’s annually considered cup contenders (on paper at least). It’s a team that seems to have all the pieces. And it’s a team that seems to be running out of options.
After years of maintaining a team that couldn’t quite put together the final piece, GM Doug Wilson had enough blowing a 3 game lead to the Kings (and a 3 goal lead in game 7) and decided that things needed to change in San Jose. But maybe that was just a lot of smoke because things look pretty much the same. The only big addition for the Sharks was adding the NHL version of Fezzik in John Scott. He’s likeable. He’s strong. He’s slow as hell and not all that bright. Dan Boyle walked but that’s nothing huge. The only real major change made by the Sharks? Stripping Jumbo Joe of his C and deciding that no one else on the team really deserves it that much more. Good move?
