Puckosphere.com

It’s that time again. Hockey is upon us! The Kings opened the 2010 preseason with a gritty comeback victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center in Denver. The Avalanche scored the first two goals of the game (Dupuis and former King Kyle Quincey) before the Kings scored 4 unanswered goals to take the tilt. [...]

On Monday I outlined an all-encompassing player evaluation model that allows us to evaluate every forward, defenseman and goalie under the same methodology.  In short, the system compares how many goals are scored for and against while a player is on the ice and compares it to how many goals scored for/against one should expect Read [...]

One of my goals has always been to create a fair and true player evaluation model.  Myself and many others have attempted to do this to varying degrees of success.  The recent trend is to stray away from goals for and against type methodologies towards shot attempts for or against methodologies (i.e. corsi analysis).  One Read [...]

Who is the best Shooter in the NHL? If you were asked, who is the best shooter in the NHL you might answer Alexander Ovechkin since he has been the most prolific goal scorer since the lockout.  What Ovechkin also always does though is take far more shots than anyone else resulting in a shooting Read [...]

When Brian Burke makes a trade more often than not he does it by targeting players and going hard after them until he gets them.  He did this with both Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf.  He identified them as players he needs to fill a hole on the roster and went hard after them.  If Read [...]

So it seems that Leaf fans are extremely excited about the acquisition of Kris Versteeg from the Chicago Blackhawks and to some extent they should be excited.  He is a solid player that will help the Leafs.  But, I think Leaf fans need to keep their hopes for Versteeg in check.  He is a good Read [...]

As always, there is a lot of speculation as to what the Maple Leafs will do on July 1st when the NHL free agent season begins.  Some are suggesting they should go big or go home and do whatever it takes to sign Ilya Kovalchuk as the answer to their offensive woes while others believe Read [...]

All right – I’m back! Where did I go? Well, really nowhere. I was in Florida for the end of the Sabres playoff run, and upon returning, I was simply too depressed to write anything. As the days turned into weeks, I just couldn’t bring myself to put my thoughts into words. But with the off-season [...]

Behind the Net Blog recently used even strength when game is tied Corsi analysis to take a look at the divisional imbalance since the lockout and came up with an interesting conclusion. The NW division is slightly better than the SE division against all shared opponents.  But SE division teams outshot NW teams in Read the [...]

This past season the Boston Bruins were the lowest scoring team in the NHL with just 196 goals for (the only team not to reach 200 goals) or about 2.34 goals per game and in the playoffs they were only slightly better scoring at a 2.58 goals per game pace.  So the question that needs Read [...]

I am planning that over the course of the summer and into next season I will get back into analyzing hockey statistics more in depth again.  Over the past couple of seasons Corsi numbers have become much more prevalent so I thought I would start off by discussing what they are and my thoughts on them. Corsi [...]

I have to wonder whether taking the GM job in Tampa was the best move for Steve Yzerman, or whether Steve Yzerman was the best choice for the GM job in Tampa. The rumour was that the Lightning ownership offered Yzerman the job several times only to be rejected by Yzerman until the Lightning made [...]

Though the UFA class is not filled with big names, their are some big names that could be available via trade. 1. Evgeni Malkin Malkin is the Penguins 2nd line centre which is great to have but when you don’t have any wingers even close to your top line centre’s calibar you have a problem. [...]

Their is not a huge list to chose from but in my mind these are the 3 best Centre’s in this years UFA class. 1. Patrick Marleau – Due to Sharks limited cap space the Sharks have and the playoff performance by Patrick Marleau the Sharks will have a very tough time retaining his services [...]

According to Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com, the LA kings will be looking to make a splash come July 1st, though their is a chance none of these players will become UFA’s the chances are at least 1 of them will be. The LA Kings have a ton of interest in potential UFA forwards Patrick Marleau [...]

With game 7 of the Canadiens, Penguins series set to go tonight, I am going to tell you my 3 x-factors that must step up for the Canadiens to win. 1. Hal Gill, he has been given the lovely task of trying to shutdown Sidney Crosby and the Penguins top line, though it hasn’t been [...]

The Dallas Stars have shown that they have confidence in goaltender Kari Lehtonen by giving him a 3 year contract extension that will earn him 3.55 million dollars per season. Let’s look at his stats from over the past 3 seasons. 2007-08 GP:45 Record: 17-22-5 GAA: 2.90 SV%: .916 SO: 4 2008-09 GP:46 Record: 19-22-3 [...]

In no order I am going to take a look at the New Jersey Devils top 3 prospects. LW Mattias Tedenby – Mattias Tedenby’s game is all about speed and skill. Mattias has represented Sweden in the World Juniors a couple of times and came up with a few highlight reel plays. Mattias is not [...]

Last night the Montreal Canadiens may have just lost more then the game. In yesterday night’s game Canadiens defenseman Hal Gill’s leg was stepped on. Gill left the game and did not return. If Hal Gill is injured for an extended period of time (maybe even 1 game) the Montreal Canadiens could find themselves golfing. [...]

Just over one year ago today Gary Bettman and the NHL they were ready to present then Phoenix Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes with a Jerry Reinsdorf offer to purchase the team but just hours prior to that meeting Jerry Moyes had the Coyotes file for bankruptcy in hopes of selling the team to Jim Balsillie [...]