Month: November 2015

Has the NHL’s new faceoff rule increased goal scoring?

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“Mise au jeu BOS @ MTL Faceoff” by Fleurdelisé. Licensed under Creative Commons via Commons.

Over the summer, the NHL made a number of significant rule changes to make the game more entertaining to fans and more fair for teams, with 3-on-3 overtime being the most revolutionary and thus far the most applauded.

Buried down at the bottom of the list of rule changes, however, was a much less significant note. It involved faceoffs – you know, that thing data analysts get peeved at commentators for overemphasizing. For years, the standard procedure has been that the visiting team’s player is required to put his blade on the ice prior to his opponent. This is an advantage for the home player, as he can attempt to secure the puck back to his side with one consistent motion rather than having to move his stick forward and then backward.

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How can we measure a goalie’s rebound control? Examining Pekka Rinne and James Reimer.

Matt Cane Exploring Context 3 Comments
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Pekka Rinne is good at controlling his rebounds. I know this, because people on the internet have made their opinions abundantly clear. Scouts and fanalysts alike credit Rinne’s quick glove hand with helping him catch a significantly higher volume of shots than most other goalies, leaving few opportunities behind for lurking opponents to deposit into his net.

James Reimer is not good at controlling his rebounds. I know this, once again, because people on the internet have made their opinions abundantly clear. Reimer’s (supposed) inability to prevent the shots he’s saved from bouncing into dangerous areas is often cited as one of the main reasons for why he should be the #2 goalie behind Jonathan Bernier on the Leafs’ depth chart.

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The 2015 OHL Final Part One: Erie Otters Passing Network

Ryan Stimson Passing Data Leave a comment

At the Rochester Hockey Analytics Conference, Stephen Burtch presented on Network Analysis using our passing data from last season. You can access Stephen’s slides here. It was an intriguing presentation on how we can use the passing data to better understand the on-ice environment of players and teams. If you’re at all familiar with my work, you won’t be surprised to hear me say that what happens prior to a shot being attempted is something that escapes us and is more important than just the final act of shooting. Only in better understanding how things happen, or don’t happen, prior to that, will we be in a better place to properly evaluate players. When Stephen presented at #RITHAC, I was sitting there thinking, “Boy, this would be great to do with the 2015 OHL Final Passing Data” I’d tracked, but hadn’t gotten around to sharing the results.

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Hockey Talk: Why the layman eye-test and results sometimes differ for defenders?

Garret Hohl Hockey Talk 1 Comment

Patrick Wiercioch - Ottawa Senators.jpg
“Patrick Wiercioch – Ottawa Senators” by Lisa Gansky – Flickr: IMG_6499. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

Hockey Talk is a (not quite) weekly series where you will get to view the dialogue amongst a few of the Hockey-Graphs’ contributors on a particular subject, with some fun tangents.

This week we look at what makes up an effective defensemen and why the eye test sometimes differs from the results:

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