tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-107593872012-02-16T02:59:02.913-06:00Who am I? <br> A diehard hockey fan. <br> <BR> Why am I blogging? <br> I want to. <br> <br> Why are you reading it? <br> You must have gotten lost on the internetThe Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.comBlogger10781100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-39661335828949992802008-09-17T12:20:00.009-05:002008-10-10T09:42:50.755-05:00

I am pleased to announce that I will blogging in the future as part of the newly expanded Kukla's Korner. My blog at Kukla's Korner can be found here. I want to thank everyone for having come to this site in the past and extend an invitation for you to join me in my new adventures on the Kukla's Korner site.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-52414086918586586482008-09-17T12:20:00.008-05:002008-09-20T04:03:02.672-05:00

It is well known that some NHL owners are in Gary Bettman's inner circle and wield significant power on the NHL's decisions, while others (such as the New York Rangers) are on the outs with the commissioner of the NHL. Probably the owner who wields the most power in the league right now is the Anschutz Group, headed by Phillip Anschutz, who owns the Los Angeles Kings. The Anschutz Group owns

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-70382156573417024072008-09-15T12:14:00.003-05:002008-09-15T12:40:17.866-05:00

One of the main stories this summer has been the development of the KHL as a major hockey league. There have been fights over players between the NHL and the KHL. The most prominent one is that of Alexander Radulov who might be interested in jumping back to the NHL. While the NHL has made a big case about Radulov jumping his contract to go to the KHL, there are other players under NHL

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-29730297243659189562008-09-12T10:53:00.003-05:002008-09-12T11:06:46.385-05:00

One of the longstanding fights between the NHL and NHLPA has been over pensions. This has been a constant battle throughout the NHLPA history. In the Alan Eagleson days of the NHLPA, most gains made by the union were in terms of pension benefits which Eagleson himself skimmed money from. These were promised benefits that were often never delivered. Eagleson often claimed that the NHL had the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-74884103293250664652008-09-11T11:10:00.003-05:002008-09-11T11:47:40.642-05:00

The NHL and the upstart KHL are fighting over players international rights. Since there is no player transfer agreement teams have been able to sign players under contract in the other league with legal uncertainty surrounding the future of those players. One of the big KHL signings this summer was Alexander Radulov of the Nashville Predators who was signed by Saavat Yulaev of the KHL. The

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-20025286787336697992008-09-07T03:50:00.003-05:002008-09-07T04:14:35.386-05:00

One of the major hockey stories this summer has been the battle between the NHL and the KHL. Since there is no player transfer agreement, both leagues have claimed players have been signed by each other that were already under contract with the other league. Earlier this summer, both leagues agreed to respect each other's contracts but that agreement quickly fell apart as a KHL signing of

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-69979928089328069332008-09-04T10:35:00.003-05:002008-09-04T10:50:01.575-05:00

One strategy of the KHL to retain as much Russian talent as possible is to dispute the contract status of as many Russian players as possible who are transferring to the NHL. Even if a player does not have a clear contract for next season, when they sign with an NHL team, his contract status will be disputed. This strategy is clear with the Los Angeles Kings signings of Andrei Loktionov and

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-73771350610719119002008-09-03T11:57:00.003-05:002008-09-03T12:25:29.428-05:00

The long awaited Toronto Maple Leaf trade of Bryan McCabe was announced yesterday. McCabe and a 2010 4th round draft pick were traded to the Florida Panthers for Mike Van Ryn. McCabe is a pretty good hockey player. He made the second team all star in 2004. He is a very good offensive defenceman and a capable power play quarterback. He is prone to making some errors in the defensive zone and

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-58456150241052311022008-09-02T13:29:00.003-05:002008-09-02T14:02:45.759-05:00

Throughout its history, the NHL has tried to control its players and their hockey possibilities. This goes back at least as far as the original six days when teams could hold player's rights essentially in perpetuity, unless they traded them. On several occasions, players were blackballed from the NHL and had to continue their careers in the minors despite having displayed NHL ability. Over

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-63948575938465720342008-08-29T11:31:00.004-05:002008-08-30T04:50:44.706-05:00

Yesterday Adam Proteau of The Hockey News reported that Andrej Meszaros has agreed to an offer sheet with an undisclosed NHL team. Meszaros is an Ottawa Senator defenceman who has been unable to come to terms with the Sens this summer. He is a restricted free agent. So far, we have no confirmation of this story on the traditional hockey news sites such as nhl.com or tsn.ca. In fact, we

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-1445857223604831182008-08-27T13:31:00.004-05:002008-08-29T12:21:56.006-05:00

Much of the history of the NHLPA is a history of NHLPA bosses who enjoyed too close a relationship with the NHL bosses and thus compromised the integrity of the Player's Association. Alan Eagleson and John Ziegler were essentially golfing buddies who would agree upon future NHL bargaining agreements that suited the owners. The 2005 lockout looked like a break from this pattern. Bob Goodenow

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-7726681612340641292008-08-23T04:29:00.004-05:002008-08-23T04:53:58.304-05:00

In late June, I gave an All Star Team of players who were slated to be unrestricted free agents. Of the 23 players on the team, 20 have signed with teams in the NHL. Jaromir Jagr signed in the KHL and Joe Sakic and Mats Sundin seem likely to take sabbaticals for the first part of the season. Here is the team and who they signed with, along with their salary cap hits. Forwards: Sean Avery

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-35094342930897886762008-08-21T11:09:00.003-05:002008-08-21T11:27:43.142-05:00

I am attempting a rather large sabermetrics and hockey project where I attempt a novel method top look at +/- ratings. In order to do this, I need to know the amount of icetime players have with and against each other in 5 on 5 situations. Parsing this information from NHL boxscores is a non-trivial task. I found this tool to do it. It is a greasemonkey script that runs with Mozilla

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-25707931451602591982008-08-18T11:24:00.003-05:002008-08-18T12:24:21.066-05:00

Since The Hockey News Top 50 player list is out, here is my top 50 player list. I am posting it in the same format I did last year. I will list all the players, but only include comments on the top 10 players and on any players who made my list but were excluded from The Hockey News List. 1. Alexander Ovechkin He was the top scorer last year (both in total points and in points per game).

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-49366957044205778492008-08-17T04:31:00.004-05:002008-08-17T07:19:42.771-05:00

The Hockey News annual top 50 players list has been released and can be found here. These are my comments on each player in the rankings. 1. Sidney Crosby (1st last year). The question of whether to rank Crosby or Ovechkin first is one that leads to debate. Ovechkin stayed healthy last year and outscored Crosby (in total points and points per game). Ovechkin scored significantly more goals -

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-71430673902958209202008-08-15T11:09:00.003-05:002008-08-15T11:30:38.082-05:00

I have looked at the hockey sabermetrics problem of adjusting +/- ratings this summer. I have shown two methods to do this. One as a rate stat and one as a counting stat. It is clear that there is a lot of information in +/- ratings, but the interpretation of getting it out in a meaningful way is non-trivial. One way to look at the problem, which to my knowledge nobody has done, is to

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-73739027277846071982008-08-14T10:17:00.003-05:002008-08-14T11:55:12.758-05:00

In this summer's sabermetrics and hockey posts, I have been looking at the problem of on and off ice adjusted +/- ratings as set out by Gabriel Desjardins of behindthenet.ca. In order to show that the on/off ice adjustment is an improvement, I have looked at the effect of this adjustment on the offensive goals for average part of +/- ratings and showed that this adjustment appears to make an

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-23872191106228731182008-08-13T10:40:00.003-05:002008-08-13T11:21:46.538-05:00

It's an often stated line that "Coaches are hired to be fired". While this is often true, there are some meaningful exceptions (for example Jacques Lemaire and Barry Trotz have been the only coaches in the histories of their franchises), several coaches are replaced each season. It seems that poorly run teams tend to replace coaches a lot more than the more well run teams and often at poorly

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-51556487696253101942008-08-12T11:41:00.003-05:002008-08-12T13:02:51.859-05:00

In order to look at the biases of the sabermetric problem of adjusting +/- ratings using the on/off ice method, I thought I would apply it to a simpler problem. That of goals for average (GFA) (namely how many goals are scored per 60 minutes a player plays in 5 on 5 situations). As we have seen, the goals for average leaders are among the best offensive players in hockey and the worst GFA

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-35066863379685117082008-08-11T10:33:00.004-05:002008-08-12T02:36:54.948-05:00

Yesterday, I posted a hypothetical 2008 Canadian Olympic Hockey Team. Today, I will do the same for the Americans. This is the team of players who I would chose to represent USA if there was an Olympic hockey tournament right now: Goaltenders Rick DiPietro New York Islanders Ryan Miller Buffalo Sabres Tim Thomas Boston Bruins Defence Keith Ballard Florida Panthers Mike Komisarek Montreal

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-83379329251326576552008-08-10T04:12:00.005-05:002008-08-10T04:49:29.948-05:00

The Beijing Summer Olympics are underway. I thought I would make up a Canadian Olympic hockey team. These are the players I would put on a team if they played today. This is not a prediction for the 2010 Olympics where we imagine players are two year older than they are now and maybe some young players who are not Olympic ready have matured or that older players who are Olympic calibre today

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-42623357714530353502008-08-09T04:47:00.005-05:002008-08-12T11:58:20.777-05:00

We can calculate individual goals against averages and we can also calculate individual goals for averages. When a player is on the ice in a 5 on 5 situation and his team scores he gets credited with a goal for (even if he doesn't score or assist on it). This is another sabermetric method to find the best offensive players in the game. The statistic is somewhat team and situation dependent.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-87799697473367308162008-08-07T10:46:00.003-05:002008-08-07T12:05:20.938-05:00

I have written several sabermetrics and hockey posts this summer about adjusting +/- ratings. This is a useful method to rank NHL players. It is not an entirely simple or solved problem, but it is one that will likely lead to some sabermetric advances in the future. If we want to rank defensive values of players, it might be a more useful starting point to look at the number of goals scored

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-2747510055797909202008-08-06T10:41:00.003-05:002008-08-06T11:14:23.489-05:00

In my recent sabermetrics and hockey posts about on/off ice adjusted +/- ratings one group of players that keep coming up with unique stats is the Anaheim Duck checking line of Sami Pahlsson, Rob Niedermayer and Travis Moen. All three of them rank as one in the ten worst quality of teammates rankings and the ten best quality of opposition rankings. Anaheim is the only team currently in the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-59608901030121633702008-08-05T11:30:00.005-05:002008-08-05T12:57:54.385-05:00

One issue to address in the sabermetrics and hockey problem of adjusting +/- ratings is the quality of teammates a player has. Since players will play different roles on their teams, different players will share ice time with different quality of linemates. Some players will play with better linemates than others. This will show up in their +/- rating. Players who play with better quality

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-76203353761475684962008-08-03T03:25:00.003-05:002008-08-03T04:30:57.121-05:00

One sabermetrics and hockey problem that can be addressed using the on/off ice adjustment +/- is the strength of opposition that players face. This helps to correct one of the weaknesses in +/- ratings. Players do not play the same role for their team. Some play against tougher opposition (ie. first line players) while others tend to play against weaker opposition (third and fourth liners).

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-71582497024840417552008-08-02T04:10:00.003-05:002008-08-02T05:04:34.047-05:00

I have written several sabermetrics and hockey posts this summer about adjusting +/- to try to cancel out team effects both as a rate stat and as a counting stat. I have used the rate stat method to adjust +/- ratings on the power play and the penalty kill. The important question to ask about this is how much can we learn from these numbers? It is obvious by looking at the numbers (for

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-56230318745854822702008-08-01T11:06:00.003-05:002008-08-01T11:31:53.306-05:00

Yesterday, the Edmonton Oilers hired Steve Tambellini to be their general manager. I didn't know they were looking for a new GM. If I did, I would have included them in the list of poorly run teams who did not have their coaching and management in place in the run up to the draft and in some cases well beyond or didn't even begin to make their moves until well into the free agency period.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-55709090074447945132008-07-31T10:56:00.005-05:002008-07-31T12:08:35.392-05:00

Yesterday, I wrote about an on/off ice +/- for penalty kills and listed the best and worst players of last season under it. The next logical step is to apply the same system to power plays. This is exactly the same as the even strength on/off ice adjusted +/- except it is restricted to play on the power play. By doing this, we can look at the sabermetric problem of individual power play

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-36493031945696495242008-07-30T10:41:00.004-05:002008-07-31T12:04:20.024-05:00

In this summer's sabermetrics and hockey posts I have been discussing +/- ratings so far. I have shown two ways to adjust +/- ratings between teams: one as a rate stat and one as a counting stat. One problem with this analysis that prevents meaningful sabermetric discussions of defence is that penalty killing is not included in standard +/- ratings. Penalty killing is an important

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-30879189405634925182008-07-29T11:53:00.004-05:002008-07-29T14:22:28.154-05:00

Yesterday, Jay Bouwmeester signed a one year $4.875 million contract with the Florida Panthers. In the strange world of the NHL that means he is likely leaving Florida as soon as he can. Bouwmeester was a restricted free agent. Next year (at age 25 - since he has been in the NHL since age 18) will be the earliest time he can be an unrestricted free agent and chose the location where he plays.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-91753561929702187612008-07-28T10:51:00.004-05:002008-07-30T00:52:22.021-05:00

The important thing that comes from hockey sabermetrics is the ability to draw conclusions about the game. Sometimes these conclusions are not widely held by the hockey establishment. I listed some of these conclusions in the thread my sabermetric philosophy. One of my conclusions was: Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby are no longer as valuable players as most fans believe. Their even strength

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-77409678226059754962008-07-27T03:41:00.003-05:002008-07-27T04:31:26.059-05:00

In this summer's sabermetrics and hockey posts, I have been writing about +/- ratings. I have shown two ways to adjust +/- ratings between teams: one as a rate stat using on and off ice performance and one as a counting stat. I have compared the top 20 players under both methods here and here. One of the larger discrepancies in this exercise comes with Chicago Blackhawk players. On the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-21097088876988893932008-07-26T02:41:00.003-05:002008-07-26T04:03:26.041-05:00

In this summer's sabermetrics and hockey posts, I have been discussing +/- ratings so far. I have shown two ways to adjust them between teams. One treats them as a rate stat using on and off ice +/- ratings and another that treats them as a counting stat. I have shown the top 20 and worst 20 adjusted +/- ratings as a rate stat. I have shown the top 20 adjusted +/- ratings as a counting

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-34196194379391425452008-07-25T10:55:00.004-05:002008-07-25T12:17:17.560-05:00

In my sabermetrics and hockey posts this summer, I have been discussing +/- ratings. I have shown one way to compare +/- ratings on different teams using on and off ice performance and given the top 20 and worst 20 ratings by that method. I have also shown another method which treats +/- as a counting stat (total values over a season are important) instead of a rate stat (per minute values

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-82047851235935832732008-07-24T11:08:00.003-05:002008-07-24T11:45:55.793-05:00

Since summer is underway and hockey news is scarce I have embarked upon a series of posts on sabermetrics and hockey. So far this summer, I have been looking at +/- ratings and what information can be gathered from them, with an eventual goal of trying to rate individual defensive performances. When presenting simple models to interpret +/- ratings I have received comments here and here

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-52451331336798193012008-07-23T11:09:00.004-05:002008-07-23T14:28:50.554-05:00

Over the past few days, I have been looking at the sabermetrics and hockey problem of adjusting +/- ratings for on and off ice performance, the framework of which was developed by Gabriel Desjardins of behind the net. I have posted the top 20 and worst 20 players last season in these stats, in hopes of eventually addressing player's individual defensive values. There are many ways to look

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-75133668086771668732008-07-22T11:42:00.005-05:002008-07-23T03:21:22.807-05:00

Yesterday, I posted the top 20 on/off ice adjusted +/- ratings. This is an attempt to look at the sabermetrics and hockey problem of rating an individual player's defensive ability. I discuss the method here and credit Gabriel Desjardins of behind the net for its development. I cannot argue that this method directly determines the best defensive player in the NHL. It will select players

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-89954145775503998152008-07-21T10:37:00.005-05:002008-07-23T00:58:13.154-05:00

My first attempt to address the sabermetrics and hockey problem of rating individual player's defensively is to look at +/- ratings adjusted to give the difference between +/- when a player is on the ice and off the ice per sixty minutes played (which is an idea popularized by behind the net). The top players will not necessarily be the top defensive players in the league. They are merely

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-86863353914681933012008-07-20T03:27:00.003-05:002008-07-20T05:03:46.719-05:00

The NHL schedule was released this week along with the usual grumping about how the schedule is hard on favorite teams. In order to get a better look at things, I decided to look at the schedule myself. A good starting point is the super schedule made by the forechecker. I think the most meaningful check of the schedule is the number of times a given team is tired fro excess travel when

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-89224406339399191442008-07-19T02:50:00.003-05:002008-07-19T03:21:32.553-05:00

In a sabermetrics and hockey discussion of defence, the usual starting point is +/- ratings. +/- ratings give a player a plus when he is on the ice for an even strength or short-handed goal and a minus when he is on the ice for an even strength or short-handed goal. This statistic does not measure defence per se. It is an attempt to measure the overall quality of a player. A high scorer can

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-50710897631609113922008-07-18T10:03:00.004-05:002008-07-18T10:29:05.406-05:00

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is trying to weigh in on the questionable player transfers this summer. Since Alexander Radulov is under contract with the Nashville Predators of the NHL despite signing with Saavat Yulaev of the KHL he has been "suspended" by the IIHF. The IIHF claims Radulov is suspended from all international transfers and competitions, while they investigate

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-80649940186674535152008-07-17T10:25:00.003-05:002008-07-17T10:57:11.756-05:00

It is a little bit beyond the midpoint of July. Free agent signing has been underway for almost three weeks. Most of the good ones are gone. The draft and the trades that accompany it are long over. Many team's rosters for next season are getting set. The Los Angeles Kings have finally got around to picking a new coach. That is something that they should have done about a month ago, but

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-73814186563396087832008-07-16T10:47:00.004-05:002008-07-16T11:50:00.709-05:00

One of the stories of the summer is the lack of an international player transfer deal. Some resolution appeared to be made when the NHL and KHL agreed to honor each other's contracts. This ran into problems when on the same day of the announcement, it was announced that Alexander Radulov, who is under contract with the Nashville predators of the NHL signed a contract with Saavat Yulaev of the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-90887392131140243562008-07-15T11:23:00.003-05:002008-07-15T11:53:08.298-05:00

A few days ago I wrote a post entitled a poorly run team in which I called the Los Angeles Kings a poorly run team in part because the have still not yet hired a coach for next season. Any well run team would have put their coaching and management in place well before the draft in June, so that this management can discuss their options and make their best attempt to improve themselves in the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-89369395741257494022008-07-14T10:27:00.005-05:002008-07-14T10:43:10.897-05:00

In the summertime when hockey news starts to slow down, I like to write about hockey sabermetrics issues. I have a reasonable archive of sabermetrics posts. This summer, I thought I would try to address the sabermetric problems of rating a player's defensive ability. This is a tough problem and one that is not fully solved, but there are several techniques to try to identify the best

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-17568570783374197752008-07-13T03:24:00.003-05:002008-07-13T04:04:08.020-05:00

The Columbus Blue Jackets have been a bad team for their existence. They have never made the playoffs. A lot of the blame for that goes to their first GM Doug MacLean, although Scott Howson will soon be earning some of that blame for himself. This summer, the Columbus Blue Jackets have made significant changes to their roster. The acquired RJ Umberger from the Philadelphia Flyers (along with

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-77031294402871451002008-07-12T04:56:00.003-05:002008-07-12T05:12:04.570-05:00

Ever since Oren Koules and Len Barrie took over as Tampa Bay ownership it has been clear that they want to do things their way. Almost all ties to their past are being broken. Head coach John Tortorella was fired and replaced by Koules friend Barry Melrose. Numerous player personnel moves have been made. All of this has happened without Jay Feaster, the Tampa Bay GM at the time being

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-52787586775729616192008-07-11T10:28:00.003-05:002008-07-11T11:00:17.138-05:00

The NHL is without a transfer agreement to govern players who jump between the various international hockey leagues. Russia opted out of the IIHF transfer agreement in 2005 and the rest of Europe joined them this season. The concerned parties met in Zurich, Switzerland yesterday and came to a partial agreement. The various leagues agreed to honor each other's contracts, with penalty of

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-41321780026192823312008-07-10T10:43:00.004-05:002008-07-10T11:56:31.446-05:00

One of my complaints about this CBA is that it is needlessly complex. It removes understanding of many of the moves in the game from the fan due to its complexity. Here is a case in point. The Toronto Maple Leafs have been attempting to sign defenceman Jonas Frogren from Farjestads BK Karlstad of the Swedish Elite League. He is a stay at home defenceman who played very well in the World

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-80614496268158397412008-07-09T11:18:00.004-05:002008-07-09T11:38:18.765-05:00

Under the current NHL CBA, there are circumstances where signing a restricted free agent to an offer sheet makes sense. You must be able to give him a big enough offer that his current team cannot afford him (either for salary cap or budgetary reasons) and he must be a good enough player that the compensation for that offer is worthwhile. This season, those circumstances have not fallen into

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-88024873344735182312008-07-08T10:04:00.002-05:002008-07-08T10:15:05.794-05:00

In 2005, I wrote My Brief History of the NHLPA. In the less than time that has passed since then, many changes have happened. Ted Saskin has exited the scene, so I thought I would update the post. The majority of this post is copied directly from the previous one. The updates are made to the end of the post to cover that which has happened since 2005. With all the NHLPA turmoil, I thought

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-92192648775309864912008-07-07T10:26:00.003-05:002008-07-07T10:53:02.039-05:00

I wrote a post a few days before the draft called a sign of a poorly run team, where I said that the Atlanta Thrashers, Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs are all showing signs of being poorly run since they did not have their coaching or management positions properly filled at a late enough point in the game where input from these unhired people would have been

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-5651528663222009142008-07-06T02:11:00.003-05:002008-07-06T02:39:59.619-05:00

Last season, three star players decided that they wanted more time off instead of starting the season in training camp in September. I referred to this as a sabbatical from the NHL. Last season, Scott Niedermayer, Teemu Selanne and Peter Forsberg all took them. These are star players who are good enough to be able to gain an NHL job whenever they want one and thus are not endangering their

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-876556830986582022008-07-05T02:35:00.003-05:002008-07-05T02:57:21.033-05:00

For the first time in a long time (and possibly ever) the Chicago Blackhawks will be among the biggest spenders in the NHL. Their payroll is near the salary cap. The fundamental change in the Chicago Blackhawk organization came when longtime owner Bill Wirtz died and replaced by his son Rocky Wirtz. Rocky was no longer satisfied to make a profit with a non-competitive franchise and decided

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-43005145635104006162008-07-04T10:37:00.003-05:002008-07-04T11:33:19.823-05:00

It has been reported that Jaromir Jagr has signed a two year contract with Avongard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). This is the fledgling Russian league that will play its initial season in 2008/09 and attempt to challenge the NHL's claim to be the best hockey league in the world. Jagr has signed for around $23 million over two years (tax free). Jagr is the first big name

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-58445703240801019062008-07-03T09:56:00.003-05:002008-07-03T10:45:55.216-05:00

One often looks foolish trying to pick a Stanley Cup favorite for the next season this early in the summer, but nevertheless I think a clear favorite exists. The Detroit Red Wings have to be considered the favorite to win the 2009 Stanley Cup. The first reason for this prediction is that Detroit won the 2008 Stanley Cup. That proves that they have a good enough team that they could win the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-73899877544679018002008-07-02T10:31:00.004-05:002008-07-02T17:08:48.588-05:00

The opening of the free agency market is a crazy time in the NHL. It is a full time job to stay on top of all the signings and trades that are going on. It is not a time to make moves that are doomed to failure. Despite that, new Vancouver Canuck GM Mike Gillis made such a move yesterday. Gillis signed St Louis Blue David Backes to a three year, $7.5 million offer sheet. While I believe that

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-10579478378126458822008-07-01T11:27:00.005-05:002008-09-15T12:31:46.611-05:00

The standard buyout period in the NHL is over and since I have not seen a summary of the moves anywhere, I will attempt to make one. Please leave me a comment if you see and errors or omissions. Bought Out Shawn Bates New York Islanders Todd Bertuzzi Anaheim Ducks Dan Cloutier Los Angeles Kings Ben Clymer Washington Capitals Marc Denis Tampa Bay Lightning Ray Emery Ottawa Senators Jeff

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-36820144876121445722008-06-30T09:50:00.003-05:002008-06-30T10:41:27.876-05:00

The Tampa Bay Lightning have new owners in Oren Koules and Len Barrie and they are clearly not afraid of being hands on owners who make high profile moves (despite NHL history being littered with disasters from this ownership style). We are beginning to see their plan to build a new Tampa Bay Lightning team. Of all the ways to build a team, free agency is definitely the fastest and probably

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-69958319253474321262008-06-29T03:24:00.006-05:002008-08-23T04:51:14.642-05:00

Free agency begins in the NHL in a couple days. The 2008 class of free agents is not a strong enough group to significantly affect the fortunes of an NHL team. This is a common situation with free agency under the current CBA. I decided to make an all star team of the 2008 free agent class and think about how this team would do were they an NHL team. Players on this all star team are listed

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-17493367697869161142008-06-28T02:38:00.003-05:002008-06-28T05:24:53.993-05:00

The Central Bargaining Agreement in the NHL changed free agency considerably by lowering the age of unrestricted free agency (to as low as 25 in some cases) and reducing the compensation for restricted free agents. Many thought this was a thinly veiled attempt to allow the best players in the NHL the freedom to sign in the best markets of the league before they reached an age where they were in

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-83965882724161847442008-06-27T10:29:00.003-05:002008-06-27T11:01:14.398-05:00

The NHL announced yesterday that the salary cap for the 2008/09 season will be $56.7 million. The salary floor will be $40.7 million. This means the Nashville Predators, Phoenix Coyotes and Columbus Blue Jackets will be forced to raise their payroll. Nashville will be forced to raise payroll by almost $6 million. This may be tough given the current ownership problems the team is having.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-23308200219269241732008-06-26T10:28:00.004-05:002008-06-26T12:36:43.524-05:00

The Tampa Bay Lightning have new owners. Oren Koules and Len Barrie head a group that has bought the team. They are committed to doing things in an inconventional way. Koules is a movie producer, best known for The Saw movies. Len Barrie is a Vancouver Island real estate developer. Both have played hockey in Western Canada. Barrie was a borderline NHL player who played 184 NHL games over

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-74349090263741144682008-06-25T09:44:00.004-05:002008-06-25T10:27:56.942-05:00

The NHL has had problems consistently doling out punishment for players. If a fringe player like Chris Simon stomps on a player's ankle he gets a 30 game suspension. If a star player like Chris Pronger does it he initially goes unpunished, but upon further review receives an eight game suspension that brings him back in time for the playoffs. Now the inconsistent punishment machine has to be

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-17069134532754060112008-06-24T11:16:00.003-05:002008-06-24T11:55:20.506-05:00

The Nashville Predators have done well to ice a competitive team with the ownership problems they have faced. The bad news keeps pouring in as minority owner William "Boots" Del Biaggio is being investigated for fraud and has declared bankruptcy and must now be replaced. These problems will eventually affect the on ice product because the team cannot afford to pay much above the salary floor

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-13872272423359796352008-06-23T09:39:00.003-05:002008-06-23T09:53:41.039-05:00

Since it is still June, it is far too early to make serious predictions about next year, but one team that is looking good is the Montreal Canadiens. Last season, Montreal won the East Conference. Since then, they have already been working on improving their roster. They acquired Alex Tanguay from Calgary along with a fifth round pick (which was used on Russian played Maxim Trunov) in

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-81618211081423919112008-06-22T02:59:00.004-05:002008-06-22T03:34:30.338-05:00

One story I failed to comment on during the Hall of Fame inductions and the entry draft is the ongoing fight between the New York Rangers and the NHL. Last September, the New York Rangers sued the NHL over marketing. The New York Rangers are fighting for control of their website nyrangers.com - which now sends you to rangers.nhl.com and the NHL wants control over all websites. This is a

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-36296530286602748662008-06-21T03:40:00.003-05:002008-06-21T04:07:30.175-05:00

The first day of the NHL Entry Draft is done. Teams picked their young players who will hopefully be a part of their franchise in the future, but given the young age of the players it is really hard to speculate on which picks will turn out to be the best ones. Along with the first picks in the draft came several draft day trades. In most cases it was a player that a team wanted to move

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-3240440500456654012008-06-20T10:30:00.008-05:002008-06-20T14:50:19.626-05:00

The 2008 Hockey Hall of Fame inductions were announced this week. One of the players selected was Glenn Anderson. Just as I did with Igor Larionov, I want to write about him and explain why I find him a poor Hall of Fame selection. Glenn Anderson was drafted out of the University of Denver in the fourth round by the Edmonton Oilers in 1979. Anderson did not stay in the NCAA. He left after

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-36055648245109171472008-06-19T11:03:00.006-05:002008-06-20T11:45:05.118-05:00

The 2008 class of the Hockey Hall of Fame was recently announced. Among them was Igor Larionov who I feel is a very good addition to the Hall of Fame. Larionov first played in the Russian Elite League at age 17 and was quickly established as one of the best players in the league. He played twelve years in Russia and was a four time Russian League All Star and the Player of the Year in 1988.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-3612405604813621102008-06-18T11:00:00.003-05:002008-06-18T11:54:27.868-05:00

Yesterday, the Hockey Hall of Fame inducted four new members. Added were players Igor Larionov and Glenn Anderson, builder Ed Chynoweth and linesman Ray Scapinello. Although this was a year with no first time eligible players, due to the 2004/05 lockout, I argued that there is enough of a backlog of Hall of Fame eligible players that the Hall should have added their maximum of four players. If

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-23308519130616652262008-06-17T11:44:00.003-05:002008-06-17T12:12:02.541-05:00

Now is the time when teams do their planning for next season and beyond. The contract buyout period is currently underway. The draft is this weekend. Free agency is less than two weeks away. In order to do this in as effective a manner as possible, teams should have their staff in place for next season. At the very least, it should be clear who will be the general manager and coach of the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-24829667928886305042008-06-16T10:58:00.003-05:002008-06-16T11:44:10.081-05:00

When the NHL Awards were announced last week, it didn't take very long before people noticed that nobody in the west (for the sake of this argument west of the Mississippi River) won any awards. This was claimed to be an eastern bias among the voters. Is this interpretation an accurate one? There are nine teams west of the Mississippi River in the NHL. The entire Pacific Division and all of

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-23589629390892056732008-06-15T02:54:00.003-05:002008-06-15T03:35:04.133-05:00

When I handicapped the Vezina race in the later part of the season, I saw it as a race between Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks. Luongo faded right at the end, due in part to his worry over his wife's complicated pregnancy and the Canucks missing the playoffs. That left Martin Brodeur as the Vezina winner by a reasonable margin, in my opinion.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-77902296629163551542008-06-14T02:51:00.003-05:002008-06-14T03:56:32.190-05:00

The NHL awards were handed out on Thursday. The Jack Adams Trophy for coach of the year was given to Bruce Boudreau of the Washington Capitals. Boudreau took over the Capitals in November when Glen Hanlon was fired. Under Boudreau, Washington improved and won the Southeast Division. They made the playoffs for the first time since 2003. This is a good achievement, but it runs along the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-75844596385124602372008-06-13T11:05:00.004-05:002008-06-13T14:49:55.663-05:00

Last night was the NHL awards ceremony. Here is who I would have voted for if I had an award ballot and here are my comments after the award nominees were announced. I don't know why the NHL doesn't better publicize the award voting results but after a bit of internet search I have found them (but not in the mainstream media). Here are the voting results for the major awards and here are

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-17908919915105812762008-06-12T13:08:00.004-05:002008-06-12T13:45:04.335-05:00

Ever since the Toronto Maple Leafs fired GM John Ferguson Jr they have been looking for his replacement. They temporarily installed 72 year old Cliff Fletcher, a former GM of the team, in the general manager position until they found their replacement. It has become clear that the Toronto Maple Leaf brass does not know how to find a general manager. They don't know where to look for a new GM.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-18342787162878003742008-06-11T11:02:00.004-05:002008-06-11T11:28:15.860-05:00

The Chicago Wolves won the Calder Cup last night as AHL champions. Here is a look back at the AHL playoff first round, second round and third round. Chicago defeats Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4 games to 2 The Chicago Wolves are the Atlanta Thrashers AHL affiliate and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is the Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate. Chicago proved they are the dominant AHL team this year. Jason

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-84174816081956233012008-06-10T11:06:00.003-05:002008-06-10T11:42:34.107-05:00

The national anthem of Canada goes like this: Da da da da DA DAAA Da da da da DA Da da da da DA da da da DA da da da DAAA... Da da It's true. The theme song from Hockey Night in Canada has more resonance among Canadians than any other piece of music. That is a quote from How To Be A Canadian by Will and Ian Ferguson. The book is a humorous look at Canada, but it shows how a simple little

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-91229313742558551322008-06-09T10:48:00.003-05:002008-06-09T11:59:38.247-05:00

Today, future Hall of Fame goaltender Dominik Hasek announced his retirement. He is the first player that I consider a Hall of Famer to retire since Eric Lindros. Hasek was born in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia on January 29th, 1965. He was brought up in the Czech system when it was still a communist state and it was unclear if he would ever have the chance to come to North America to play in the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-50286909278499956742008-06-08T03:29:00.002-05:002008-06-08T03:32:39.473-05:00

I have been involved with and running a deep keeper fantasy hockey league with 30 teams and 25-27 man rosters. We have existed since 1999. Here is our website. At least one (and possibly a few) teams will open up this summer. If you are interested in becoming the GM for one please email me through my profile.

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-38615615080873411612008-06-07T03:31:00.003-05:002008-06-07T04:30:26.714-05:00

Last summer, the Nashville Predators had an ownership crisis. The original owner of the team Craig Leipold decided to sell and it looked for a while like the team would be moved. Eventually, a local ownership group bought the team. It was not an easy purchase to put together. The new predators ownership group needed concessions from the city of Nashville and they needed to bring on William

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-267267336007857312008-06-06T07:38:00.003-05:002008-06-06T09:19:58.294-05:00

I have a got a few comments arguing my position I stated yesterday that I don't think there will be a Sidney Crosby era in the NHL. I don't think there will be a period of time where Sidney Crosby clearly dominates the league. There won't be an era similar to the Wayne Gretzky era, where Gretzky won nine Hart Trophies in ten years. He won't dominate on the level of Bobby Orr, where Orr won

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-74418419107567499642008-06-05T10:49:00.003-05:002008-06-05T11:24:10.807-05:00

The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup last night defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins four games to two in the finals. This gives me a respectable 10-5 record in my playoff predictions. Detroit was the best team in the NHL this season. They were the first team to look dominant this season, the favorite at All Star break, the President's Trophy winner and the eventual cup champions. The

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-66314943755438326272008-06-04T10:53:00.003-05:002008-06-04T11:21:27.180-05:00

The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that they have fired coach John Tortorella. Tortorella had won the 2004 Stanley Cup during his tenure in Tampa Bay, but he had not done well lately. I have written about his failed strategy of overplaying his star players which left Tampa Bay in last place in the NHL this season. It has led to Tampa Bay burning out and then getting rid of Brad Richards

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-33818533998708252962008-06-03T11:45:00.003-05:002008-06-03T12:17:55.869-05:00

Last night was a great playoff game. The Pittsburgh Penguins won in triple overtime to force a game six. They are still losing the series, but they narrowed their deficit to three games to two. Once again, Detroit badly outshot their opposition. This time it was a 58-32 shot margin. Marc-Andre Fleury played well in the Pittsburgh goal. Chris Osgood was not quite so good. Pittsburgh opened

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-37972311963011957522008-06-02T10:42:00.004-05:002008-06-02T11:01:53.855-05:00

Although the Stanley Cup playoffs get the most press attention, they are not the only hockey going on right now. In the AHL, the Calder Cup championships are underway. In the Calder Cup finals the Chicago Wolves are playing the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Currently, Chicago leads the series two games to none. Chicago is the Atlanta Thrasher farm club and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is the

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-57321460964065233712008-06-01T00:11:00.002-05:002008-06-01T00:17:16.917-05:00

The Detroit Red Wings are now one win away from winning the Stanley Cup. They defeated Pittsburgh 2-1 in game four of the Stanley Cup finals series to move into a three games to one lead. Marian Hossa scored early in the game to give Pittsburgh a lead, but Detroit answered back with a Nicklas Lidstrom goal in the first period and a Jiri Hudler goal in the third. They secured the win by killing

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-22403784700140365452008-05-31T04:38:00.003-05:002008-05-31T05:50:39.750-05:00

The Toronto Star obtained NHL documents that were not intended for public disclosure that show the NHL ticket revenue situation. Here is a summary of the information. The Canadian markets are the largest ticket revenue producers. Along with the New York Rangers, the six Canadian markets are the seven biggest producers of ticket revenue. They all show large increases in revenue due in a large

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-1556574487317059162008-05-30T09:45:00.003-05:002008-05-30T10:03:23.577-05:00

Yesterday, the Hockey Hall of Fame announced their media inductees for 2008. They inducted sportscaster Mike "Doc" Emrick and journalist Neil Stevens. Mike Emrick began doing play-by-play in 1973 for the Port Huron Flags of the IHL. In 1977, he began commentating for the Maine Mariners of the AHL. In 1980, he became calling games for the Philadelphia Flyers. In 1982, he became the first ever

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-23366241138677494692008-05-29T09:43:00.003-05:002008-05-29T10:03:23.140-05:00

After two games where the Detroit Red Wings dominated the Pittsburgh Penguins and did not allow the Penguins any goals (and few legitimate scoring opportunities), the Penguins have come back and won game three of the Stanley Cup finals 3-2. This win may put Pittsburgh back into the series (it is also possible that the Penguins roll over and die in games four and five). It was a Pittsburgh win,

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-28234757162813977642008-05-28T09:50:00.003-05:002008-05-28T09:59:54.053-05:00

The New York Rangers have attempted to cheat some of their (former) players out of the money that they bargained for in contract negotiations. Both Bobby Holik and Jed Ortmeyer had contracts with signing bonuses that were pro-rated over the course of their contracts. The New York Rangers argued that they did not have to pay these bonuses for the 2004/05 lockout season, because the players did

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-57449114016423594782008-05-27T11:46:00.003-05:002008-05-27T12:03:13.440-05:00

The biggest story of the Stanley Cup finals so far is that the Pittsburgh Penguins have yet to score any goals. They played two games and lost by scores of 4-0 and 3-0. Given their high powered offensive stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marian Hossa this is a surprising outcome. I think the Detroit Red Wings team defence has played two outstanding games (and to a lesser degree an

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-22558902220101756472008-05-26T10:36:00.003-05:002008-05-26T11:05:09.999-05:00

The Memorial Cup has completed. My preview is here and my summary of the round robin is here. Here are the playoff results: Semi-Final Kitchener 9 Belleville 0 This was the most one-sided game in the tournament. Kitchener dominated. Justin Azevedo (undrafted) got a hat trick and two assists. Matt Halischuk (New Jersey draft pick) and Nick Spaling (Nashville draft pick) both added five

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-13921420886743083752008-05-25T03:21:00.002-05:002008-05-25T03:34:57.144-05:00

The AHL semi-finals have completed. Here is a look back at the second round and the first round. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton defeats Portland 4 games to 3 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate and Portland is Anaheim's. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was led by Tim Brent and defenceman Alex Goligoski. John Curry has provided solid goaltending. Portland has been led by Bobby Ryan and

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-31436986308582202322008-05-24T03:32:00.003-05:002008-05-24T04:15:07.602-05:00

It has been written several times (for example by Pierre LeBrun) that the 2008 Stanley Cup final between the Detroit Red Wings meeting the Pittsburgh Penguins is a dream series for the NHL. How true is that statement and how much is propaganda put out by the NHL's marketing arm? From a marketing standpoint, this is definitely not a dream series. Detroit is the eleventh biggest media market

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-78241333164166225022008-05-23T09:11:00.003-05:002008-05-23T09:42:33.010-05:00

The round robin portion of the Memorial Cup is over. Here are the results: 1. Spokane Chiefs 3-0 Spokane won all three of their games, but none were dominant wins. They have been led by Drayson Bowman (Carolina Hurricane draft pick) who leads the tournament in scoring with seven points and 2008 draft eligible Mitch Wahl. Dustin Tokarski, who is also eligible for the 2008 draft, has been

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-73549577311887014182008-05-22T03:44:00.004-05:002008-05-22T11:58:29.903-05:00

Since an early point in the playoffs, I have been picking Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins as the playoff MVP. However, he slowed down at the end of the Philadelphia series. He only had two points in the final four games of that series. That leaves a five-way race for the playoff top scorer including Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Marian Hossa, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk all within

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10759387.post-65134465605920113252008-05-21T10:53:00.004-05:002008-05-21T11:06:11.424-05:00

So far in the playoffs, I have a 9-5 record in my predictions. My two correct predictions in the semi-finals have clinched the fact that I will have an above .500 record in my 2008 playoff predictions. Here are my second round predictions and here are my first round predictions. The finals will be the Detroit Red Wings against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Here is my prediction: Detroit

The Puck Stops Herehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12476848399356136470noreply@blogger.com0