As I was sitting down to write today’s links post, I received an email from EOTP’s own Laura Saba with the subject line “Because I love you guys.” What greeted me in the body of the message was something beyond my wildest imagination. Enclosed was a link to an article, ostensibly from another dimension, where a human man has penned the following paragraph:
He’s not going to ever have Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin-esque stats, but he does all of the little things that makes the Bruins a successful team. I’d rather have someone like Gregory Campbell on my team than someone like Ovechkin.
Where can one go after viewing something so deranged? The only answer I could come up with is to articles rooted firmly in reality. With that in mind, here are your links for the day.
Montreal Canadiens News and Analysis
- Montreal Canadiens main camp opens today with medical, dental, and physical examinations slated for the 55 invitees. With media access confined between 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM, we’ll have to wait until then for roster news to surface.
- Christopher Boucher looks at scoring chances created and given up by individual players per minute of ice time during the 2013 season. In this context, a player is awarded a created chance if he scores, generates a shot, or completes a pass/generates a turnover that results in a shot or goal. According to Boucher’s research, Tomas Plekanec gave up the most even strength scoring chances of any forward. For reference’s sake, Plekanec’s tough minutes counterpart Brian Gionta gave up the fourth most scoring chances among wingers. As a massive Pleks apologist, these results makes me sad.
- Pierre Boivin, former president of the Montreal Canadiens, reflects on how to manage superstars.
General News and Analysis
- With a new Canadian broadcast deal needed for the 2014-2015 season, a Champions Cup competition on the table, and a “big-event” strategy in full effect, the NHL has set a goal of growing national revenue by $1 billion over the next three seasons.
- With regards to the Champions Cup, the NHL is apparently planning to create a European football style “champions tournament” by the 2016 season. This type of tournament would see the best teams from the NHL and European leagues battle for club supremacy.
- The NHL has reworded the language of Rule 48.1 (Illegal Check to the Head) from “A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted.” to “A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head was the main point of contact and such contact to the head was avoidable [is not permitted].” Justin Bourne muses on this fact and other hockey minutia in his Thoughts on Thoughts Column.
- People like to ask search engines questions and Jared Dobias of Battle of California likes to answer them. Will hilarity ensue? You do the math!
- The Australian Ice Hockey League season has ended with the Sydney Ice Dogs defeating the Newcastle North Stars 6-3 in the Goodall Cup final. According to IIHF.com wrtier Trevor Allen, it was a season of milestones for the eight-team semi-professional league. Ratings in Australia have been comparable to NHL regular season play and a weekly highlights package has made its way onto broadcast television. Good going, AIHL.
- Nazem Kadri has signed a two-year bridge deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs that will see the almost 23-year old centre earn $2.9 million per season. Here’s a first reaction from Leafs Nation’s Cam Charron.
- Oilers blogger and analytics guru Michael Parkatti continues his quest to identify the randomness of hockey metrics. This post looks at on-ice save percentage and its impact on PDO, uncovering seven characteristics that, to my knowledge, are pretty unique. Of particular interest is Parkatti’s conclusion that a forward’s PDO is probably a poor indicator of how lucky he is. This is the case because a forward’s PDO
