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15 Sep 2014

I've been insanely pessimistic about the Avs season all summer, and I have only revealed the source of my pessimism in bits and pieces over twitter. So I figured I needed to give a comprehensive guide to why I don't think the Avs are going to be very good this season: (and why I'm going to enjoy the season anyways). This is intended to be a 5 part series, but it could balloon to six...

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23 May 2014

Those who argue with Advanced stats usually do so because of the eye test. The general vibe given off in these conversations is that a trained eye is better at evaluation because it can pick up nuance that numbers don't capture.   Here's why I find "the eye test" extremely unreliable, in ove video about a card trick:    

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11 Mar 2014

Tweet This is a pretty contraversial opinion in Avs land, so I better have a pretty good reason and logic to back it up. And I do.  First of all, It's important to note how important Puck Possession (measured with either Corsi or Fenwick) is to a team's success. I don't want to go into a long schpiel on it, but Eric T, one of the best analytics minds in hockey right now, has it...

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17 Feb 2014

Tweet As ice hockey is unquestionably one of the sports with a really big following in both the U.S. and Canada, it really seems surprising that there have not been a greater number of themed casino slot games based on it. The development of Break Away by the very successful Microgaming could well see that change though, as this five reel example of the form is the first such game to be based on NHL...

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07 Dec 2013

Tweet When the injured Jan Hejda was replaced on the top pair with Nate Guenin I was initially boggled at how very smart hockey people, such as Patrick Roy and his staff, can be so wrong about a player or players as he continues to undervalue the contributions of Tyson Barrie. I was listening to my favorite podcast on the internet, You are not so Smart, when the host talked about Argumentum ad Antiquitatem, or...

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21 May 2013

Tweet Adrian Dater reports, that Stephane Roy's, Patrick Roy's brother, has said that Roy (Patrick, not Stephane) is going to be the next coach of the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs, for their part, are not commenting on it because the organization looked deep into Medusa's eyes years ago rendering them incapable of commenting on anything. I have mixed feelings on whether or not Patrick Roy will be a good head coach. I have mixed feelings...

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06 May 2013

Tweet Today AJ over at Mile high Hockey presented an interesting argument for the Avs hiring Dallas Eakins of the Toronto Marlies (the Maples Leafs AHL affiliate) It is an argument that certainly piques my interest. That said, One of the things I really want out of the Avs in this process is a a comprehensive coaching search. In addition to Eakins, I really hope the Avs take a look at a coach who isn't...

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19 Mar 2013

Tweet  Eric at the Flyers blog Broad Street Hockey has recently published a couple nice advanced stats primers as well: Team | Individual As many here have seen here hockey is starting to warm up to fancier statistics. A ton of really smart, advanced statistical analysis has been done by many people over the last 5-8 years that has seen a great deal of new useful statistics (Corsi, OZone%, PDO) replace more traditional statistics (±)...

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16 Mar 2013

Tweet The Avs are currently 20th in Goals/Game with 2.52. Since Feb 1st they have 2.65 G/G which would be a respectable 16th. The Avs are currently 27th in GA/G at 3.07 GA/G. since Feb 1st they have given up 3.25 GA/G which would tie for 29th. On the Season, The Avs goaltending is 11th in ESSV%.The problem with this game is the defense. It's the Defense. It's the Defense.

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12 Mar 2013

Tweet CopperandBlue sent me an appropriate clip after I learned Tyson Barrie was being sent down: </embed> That about sums it up. Aside from Duchene and Parenteau, Tyson Barrie has been the nicest story for this Avs team, a rookie who was expected to maybe contribute who quickly became one of the Avs best defensemen. Just like that, Avs management/coaching ruin it because old time hockey guys are dumb and think being a rookie and...

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