Monthly archives for January, 2014

Alex Ovechkin's "Statistical Dominance" In The NHL? Hardly

Alex Ovechkin scored his 400th career goal on December 19. NHL.com ran a story proclaiming his “statistical dominance.” My not-very-sensitive gag reflex was triggered. Don’t get me wrong, Alex Ovechkin is fantastic to watch and he’s exceptionally good at what he does. Unfortunately, he only does one thing: score goals. Now, one might reasonably, yet […]

Some further thoughts on goal quality

By Ian Cooper Since we officially launched last week, we've had a lot of feedback on our first article in The Toronto Star.  I wanted to take a moment to thank everybody who took the time to tell us what they think and to respond to some of those comments. Because we only have 700 […]

Is Don Cherry right about stat padders?

Not all goals are created equal — some of the NHL’s elite scorers tend to feast on weaker, non-playoff teams. By Ian Cooper, Published in The Toronto Star, Friday January 24, 2014 In The Gospel According to Don Cherry, some players are shameless stat padders. Cherry can even tell you what kind of passports they carry. But is […]

Welcome!

Welcome to the Department of Hockey Analytics By IJay Palansky The Department of Hockey Analytics, or “The Department,” as we affectionately refer to it, has a simple mission:  to use advanced statistics and our unique experience to develop innovative approaches to better understand the game of hockey.  This is our first blog, but we’ve been […]