"Hockey News 11-02: onward, 2001-02 stats, THN eye-rollers"

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Autumn 2002
Private Doubts... Major Statistics... General Grousing
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The Winter of Our Discontent
Hello, Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland.
Above and Beyond Hockey is back for a fifth season. And right off the top, the big question
would be -- "why." Oh, not in the sense that our detractors and critics have long asked that
question, but in a whole new way that only we can ask, and can ask only ourselves. Something
happened last spring, or several things -- we're not entirely sure. Part of it might simply be the
accumulation of almost 20 years of banging our heads against a brick wall, trying to promote the
game's history and a more intelligent approach to its analysis, trying to combat the game's
mismanagement and misfeasance, all with little result or recognition. Part of it has to do with the
retirement of half of the writing team that sparked this site. He says that after 18 years of covering
the game for newspapers and magazines and co-authoring five books on hockey, he's written out
on the subject. He's said all he has to say. Maybe all there is to say. Disappointing though that
decision is, it's hard to disagree. We know just where he's coming from. Then the big playoff
edition of our News page was pre-empted when AOL began wholesale technical upgrades without
notice, instituting an embargo on website updates that began in April and lasted through the entire
playoffs. By the time it was lifted, our regular-season player ratings and playoff predictions didn't
matter much. Then Hasek's name was inscribed on the Stanley Cup -- a place in history he coulda
shoulda won with Buffalo back in '99. We're all Sabres fans here at the site, not that this has ever
been a Sabre site by any means. The newly Hasekless Sabres were every bit as dismally unexciting
and unsuccessful on the ice as we'd predicted last season, too, and a laughingstock off it, with the
arrests of their owners for exactly the sort of criminal book-cooking and ledger-shuffling we've
so often said was a commonplace among NHL teams, not that anyone ever listens to us. And
maybe all that, too, proved a factor in what came next. It was strange. There we were -- Sabre
fans, yes -- but rooting Hasek on with Detroit, and by god the greatest goaltender of the last
quarter century if not of all time sure enough wound up skating the Hallowed Cuspidor around
the ice at the Joe. And it provided not just joy and vindication, but also a weird, and wholly
unexpected, vicarious sense of a sort of consummation. Suddenly, there were no more worlds
to conquer. And that feeling has been lingering and pervasive. For all of us here, 30, 35 years of
uninterrupted live-eat-breathe-and-sleep passion for the game -- for its look, its sound, its feel,
its history, its possibilities, even for our activist role in criticising every awful thing done and being
done to it and within it -- deflated, evaporated, all but vanished. For the first time since any of us
here were kids who didn't know hockey from kickball, we didn't avidly follow player movement
during the off-season, didn't find our pulses quickening with anticipation when the leaves turned
colour and the air got colder and the first frost hit and the new season beckoned. Somebody
threw the off-switch. Somebody pulled the plug. Our main connection with the game as this
season opened was, egad, our participation in fantasy hockey leagues. There, at least, a sense
of control over our teams' destinies, our leagues' policies, and a real and immediate sense of our
opinions on hockey being heard and valued by friends and fellow owners. So, then, why continue
Above and Beyond? Well, there's our love of tradition -- four and a half years on-line is an
eternity for a hockey website, and we'd hate to see that just fade away. And in spite of our often
cranky tone, there's an uncrushable optimism that hockey will provide some new event or some
fresh remark so marvellous or so hideous that we'll once again be galvanized into ecstasy or
outrage and hyperverbal action. And then there's this: director Marcel Ophuls said that he made
films not for an audience of millions but for fifty friends. We dig. For the staff here at
Above and Beyond Hockey, that'll do. -- SIR

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900 CC's of Perseverance, Stat

Here's the 2001-02 addendum to the new Hockey Compendium. A little late, but of interest if you're neither in the mob on the right that still insists hockey performance can never be quantified statistically, nor in the mob on the left that insists every hockey stat must be adjusted with slide-rules and algorithms to compensate for eye colour and relative humidity to have any value.

 League-wide goals per game average, 2001-02

5.164
Yet once more again, the lowest figure since 1955-56. By the way, don't be fooled by numbers from the league or THN that inflate that figure by a third of a goal per game. They're not taking overtime into consideration.

 Largest increase in winning percentage 
 -- minimum 44-game schedule

Team          2000-01  .Pct      2001-02   .Pct  Improvement 
New York Isl  21-54-7  .299  ->  42-32-8   .561   +262 (6th) 
  We all knew the Isles would be better -- maybe 18 or 20 points worth -- but who foresaw a 
  resurgence of these dimensions!  Veterans Alexei Yashin (32 goals) and Mike Peca (Adjusted 
  +16.6), youngsters Mark Parrish (30 goals) and Shawn Bates (Adjusted +15.6), and career years 
  from journeymen like rearguard Adrian Aucoin (Adjusted +20.6) and goalie Chris Osgood 
  (.910 save percentage) led the suburbanites to the sixth-biggest one-season improvement by 
  any team of the last 75 years. 




 Individual Presence in goalscoring, 2001-02 
  -- contribution to team -------   player's goals per game x scheduled games  
            team's goal total  -  player's goals 
  Player, team     GP   G  Team GF Presence Rank (modern) 
1 Iginla, Cgy      82  52    201     .349       8th 
2 Kovalev, Pit     67  32    198     .236       -- 
3 Kovalchuk, Atl   65  29    187     .232       -- 
  Iginla makes his strongest claim to the Hart Trophy with this number, which places him eighth 
  on the modern list (since 1931-32) for greatest individual contribution to his team's offence -- 
  the largest by any player in history since, er, well, the year before.  




 Quality of Victory, goals, 2001-02 
  -- margin of victory over runners-up ------------------   100 x (leader's GPG / runner-up's GPG) - 100 
           Player, team       GP   G  G/GP  QofV  Rank 
Leader     Iginla, Cgy        82  52  .634  21.82  -- 
Runner-up  K Tkachuk, StL     73  38  .521             
  A romp for Iginla, although, somewhat surprisingly, not one of historic dimensions. 




 Quality of Victory, assists, 2001-02 
  -- margin of victory over runners-up ----------------   100 x (leader's APG / runner-up's APG) - 100 
           Player, team       GP   A  A/GP  QofV  Rank 
Leader     Oates, Was-Phi     80  64  .800  6.18   -- 
Runner-up  Jn Allison, LA     73  55  .753             
  Oates continues to dish off brilliantly at age 47, but this is a rather narrow edge 
  over his closest pursuers from last year.  




 Quality of Victory, points, 2001-02 
  -- margin of victory over runners-up ------------------   100 x (leader's PPG / runner-up's PPG) - 100 
           Player, team       GP   P  P/GP  QofV  Rank 
Leader     Bertuzzi, Vnc      72  85 1.181  0.84   -- 
Runner-up  Iginla, Cgy        82  96 1.171             
  Yes, Todd Bertuzzi, the former Fishstick, last season's NHL points-per-game leader, more 
  productive on a per-game basis, by an eyelash, than Iginla.  Who out there even suspected!  
  Our nod to the Todd.  




 Individual Scoring Dominance, goals, 2001-02 
  -- player compared to league --------------          player's goals per game 
  league-wide team goals per game 
Player, team       GP   G  G/GP  Avg Team  ISD  Rank 
Iginla, Cgy        82  52  .634   2.582   .246   -- 
  A fine number, but again, not of historic magnitude.  At least seven goal scoring performances 
  in just the last the ten years have registered higher by this measure. 




 Ideal Scoring, goals, 2001-02 
  -- all factors weighed 


-----------------    player's goals per minute                       ?   
       season league-wide       =     historic league-wide 
          goals per game                        goals per game 

                           ? x 1600 = Ideal Goals 
Player, team       GP   G  G/GP Est Min/GP NHL G/GP Ideal G Rank 
Iginla, Cgy        82  52  .634   21:40      5.16     58.5  62nd 
K Tkachuk, StL     73  38  .521   21:40      5.16     48.0   -- 
E Lindros, NYR     72  37  .514   21:40      5.16     47.4   -- 
  Now there's the real test.  On this scale, Iginla joins the immortals with his goal scoring 
  exploits of last season, a performance well up among the top 100 in hockey history. 




 Perseverance Index, 2001-02 
  -- goaltender efficiency versus workload ---------------   (save percentage x 600) + shots faced per game 
                                             .6 
mininum 1640 minutes played
Goaler, team      Mins Saves/Shots Sh/GP  SvPct   PI 
Theodore, Mtr     3864  1836/1972   30.6  .931   982 
Luongo, Fla       3030  1513/1653   32.7  .915   970 
Khabibulin, TB    3896  1761/1914   29.5  .920   969 
P Roy, Cdo        3773  1507/1629   25.9  .925   968 
S Burke, Phx      3587  1574/1711   28.6  .920   968 
Hnilicka, Atl     3367  1777/1956   34.9  .908   967 
Cechmanek, Phi    2603  1042/1131   26.1  .921   965 
Nabokov, SJo      3901  1669/1818   28.0  .918   965 
Giguere, Ana      3127  1273/1384   26.6  .920   964 
Biron, Buf        4085  1630/1781   26.2  .915   959 
M Richter, NYR    3195  1518/1675   31.4  .906   959 
Hasek, Det        3872  1514/1654   25.6  .915   958 
Osgood, NYI       3743  1571/1727   27.7  .910   956 
T Salo, Edm       4035  1564/1713   25.5  .913   955 
S Shields, Ana    1777   771/850    28.7  .907   955  
Barrasso, Tor-Car 2127   903/996    28.1  .907   953 
Da Blackburn, NYR 1737   840/935    32.3  .898   952 
J Hedberg, Pit    3877  1673/1851   28.6  .904   952 
Dunham, Nas       3316  1381/1525   27.6  .906   952 
Turek, Clg        4081  1667/1839   27.0  .906   952 
Kolzig, Was       4131  1785/1977   28.7  .903   951 
Denis, Cmb        2335  1076/1197   30.8  .899   950  
F Potvin, LA      4071  1529/1686   24.8  .907   948 
Tugnutt, Cmb      2502  1076/1195   28.7  .900   948 
Bri Boucher, Phi  2295   880/972    25.4  .905   948 
Dafoe, Bos        3827  1379/1520   23.8  .907   947 
Roloson, Min      2506  1020/1132   27.1  .901   946 
Kidd, Fla         1683   767/857    30.6  .895   946 
Cu Joseph, Tor    3065  1096/1210   23.7  .906   945 
Lalime, Otw       3583  1373/1521   25.5  .903   945 
Irbe, Car         2974  1156/1282   25.9  .902   945  
Thibault, Chi     3838  1467/1626   25.4  .902   945  
M Brodeur, NJ     4347  1499/1655   22.8  .906   944 
D Cloutier, Vnc   3502  1298/1440   24.7  .901   942 
Fernandez, Min    2463  1032/1157   28.2  .892   939 
Br Johnson, StL   3491  1166/1293   22.2  .902   939  
Belfour, Dal      3467  1305/1458   25.2  .895   937 
Schwab, Tor       1646   632/707    25.8  .894   937 

547 - 1639 minutes played
Goaler, team      Mins Saves/Shots Sh/GP  SvPct   PI 
Aebischer, Cdo    1184   501/538    27.3  .931   977 
Markkanen, Edm     784   312/336    25.7  .929   971 
Weekes, TB-Car     950   468/511    32.3  .916   969 
Turco, Dal        1519   617/670    26.5  .921   965  
Kiprusoff, SJo    1037   465/508    29.4  .915   964 
Storr, LA          886   332/360    24.4  .922   963 
Hackett, Mtr       717   357/395    33.0  .904   959 
M Legace, Det     1117   458/503    27.0  .911   956 
Skudra, Vnc       1166   461/508    26.1  .907   951 
Hurme, Otw        1309   524/578    26.5  .907   951  
Rhodes, Atl        769   392/439    34.2  .893   950
Esche, Phx        1145   481/533    27.9  .902   949  
T Vokoun, Nas     1471   612/678    27.6  .903   949  
G Snow, NYI       1217   494/549    27.1  .900   945  
Vernon, Clg        825   337/375    27.3  .899   944 
J Grahame, Bos    1079   451/503    28.0  .897   943 
Passmore, Chi     1142   403/446    23.4  .904   943  
Brathwaite, StL   1446   489/543    22.5  .901   938 
JS Aubin, Pit     1094   472/537    29.4  .879   928 
Billington, Was    710   259/295    24.9  .878   920 

1 - 546 minutes played
Goaler, team      Mins Saves/Shots Sh/GP  SvPct   PI 
Michaud, Mtr        18    14/14     46.7 1.000  1078 
Si Lajeunesse, Otw  24     9/9      22.5 1.000  1038 
Gustafson, Min      26     7/7      16.2 1.000  1027 
Holmqvist, NYR       9     2/2      13.3 1.000  1022  
Toskala, SJo        10     2/2      12.0 1.000  1020 
Divis, StL          25     4/4       9.6 1.000  1016 
Charpentier, Was   122    73/78     38.4  .936  1000  
Cassivi, Atl       307   190/207    40.5  .918   985 
Conklin, Edm       148    62/66     26.8  .939   984 
Flaherty, Fla      245   136/148    36.2  .919   979 
Labbe, Cmb         117    62/68     34.9  .912   970 
P Nurminen, Atl    465   247/275    35.5  .898   957 
Bryzgalov, Ana      32    11/12     22.5  .917   954  
Vanbiesbrouck, NJ  300   107/117    23.4  .915   954  
Auld, Vnc           60    20/22     22.0  .909   946  
Raycroft, Bos       65    26/29     26.8  .897   941 
Fiset, Mtr         109    53/60     33.0  .883   938 
Noronen, Buf       518   194/217    25.1  .894   936 
Lasak, Nas         177    91/104    35.2  .875   934  
JF Damphousse, NJ  294   103/115    21.0  .896   931 
Kochan, TB         237   113/129    32.7  .876   930  
Garon, Mtr         261   128/147    33.8  .871   927 
N Little, Phi       60    25/29     29.0  .862   910 
Brochu, Vnc        216    89/104    28.9  .856   904  
Whitmore, Clg       58    18/21     21.7  .857   893  
P Desrochers, Phx  243    84/99     24.4  .848   889  
Maracle, Atl        60    17/20     20.0  .850   883 
Essensa, Buf       350    96/113    19.4  .850   882 
Clemmensen, NJ      20     4/5      15.0  .800   825 
Prusek, Otw         62    12/15     14.5  .800   824   
Centomo, Tor        40     9/12     18.0  .750   780 

All goalers     149703 61413/67654  27.1  .908   953 

  Josie puts up Hasek-like numbers playing behind the pussycats in Montreal, earning our 
  bootless vote for the Hart.  There's a significant gap between his performance and those of his 
  runners-up, but Roberto Luongo ("in a galaxy far, far away") and the resurrected Berlin Wall were 
  both superb toiling in relative anonymity for the Orlando SolarBears or whatever those teams are.  
  A couple of oldsters excelled:  Saint Patrick maintained his customary level of excellence, and 
  Sean Burke continued to improve with age.  Milan Hnilicka nobly faced down the proverbial 
  torrent of frozen vulcanized rubber in Atlanta with unheralded skill, and for all the criticism 
  directed his way, Hasek's Czech understudy looks to have once again had a fine year in Philly.  
  Evgeny "Lolita" Nabokov proved to be no rookie fluke, and J-S Giguere moved further up the 
  ladder of the league's netminding elite.  After a shaky start, Marty Biron came on strong in the 
  second half while trying to fill some enormous shoes in Buffalo, while his legendary predecessor, 
  in his final season, gets a long-deserved stint playing goal in a rocking-chair and posts a number 
  well below the usual 970s and 980s he mounted for Sabres.                                -- KER / SIR 

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Say What?      We let our subscription to The Hockey News run out, but we couldn't resist picking up 
last week's newsstand copy of the largest source of misguided opinion next to The Republic.  
"The New NHL," shouted the cover story -- "Why skating and scoring are back in vogue."  
We browsed through while the scores from that evening's full slate of NHL games rolled in -- 
5-2, 5-0, 4-1, 2-2, 2-1 in overtime, 2-1 in overtime, 3-0, 2-0, 1-0, and 1-0 in overtime.  That's 
34 goals in 612 minutes of hockey, or 3.33 goals per 60-minute game.  Blistering.  Thank you, 
Official House Organ.  We might otherwise have thought overexpansion and oversized goalie 
equipment were still stifling offence.  For the record, through the end of October and the season's 
first 150 games, NHL scoring stood at 5.48 goals per 60-minute game, a figure guaranteed to 
diminish as the season drags on.  It's been almost six years since we've seen NHL games average 
as many as six goals, more than a decade now since seven was the norm.  
      Here's another howler from the Bumble of Hockey, two weeks prior:  "Power plays were 
clicking at 18.1 per cent after 57 games compared to 15.1 at a similar point last year.  Even so, 
scoring was up only marginally from 5.4 goals per game to 5.7.  The snap conclusion:  five-on-five 
scoring is suffering because the top skill players are spending so much of their time on the power 
play."  Yeah, that's it -- there are fewer even-strength goals this year than last because the 
top snipers are exhausted.  Nothing to do with the fact that there were 720 power-play 
opportunities in those 57 games compared to 580 at the same point last year, and therefore 
less time in each game spent at even strength, eh?  Remember those sort of bright insights 
the next time THN lobbies for enlarging the size of the goal, which it does almost weekly.  -- SIR 

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Site News      At least the mysterious Professor Krypto has been busy during the off-season.  His latest 
handiwork is now available to frustrate and amuse you in our CrossChecks section...  It's not 
too early to start that holiday shopping -- don't miss out on obtaining a copy of the often 
hard-to-find Hockey Compendium for that hard-to-buy-for hockey fan on your gift list...  
In fact, rare mint copies of The Death of Hockey, Original Six, and the original 1986 and 
1987 editions of the Compendium can be grabbed up off our Hockey Bookshelf as well, and 
at ridiculously low prices we might add.                                                                     -- SIR 

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ArchiveMarch '02            Olympic Roadblock / Olympic All-Stars / IIHF Perspective / Oddments 
Christmas '01    Roadblock to Slovakia / NHL, THN, GPG / Professor Krypto's Crosschecks / 
                               Hockey Bookshelf 
Autumn '01         September 11th / 2001-02 NHL Forecast / New Hockey Compendium / Charities / 
                               Win Our Awards   
Summer '01       The Hockey News Loves Child Molesters / The Lindrosaurus / Hockey Songs 
Feb'-March '01  Billy Tibbetts, Rapist / Gillett It Be / Lemieux et le pire / Hasek the whipping boy / 
                               Reviews: Shots on Net, Tropic of Hockey / Hockey Songs 
December '00     Holiday Hoohah / You Know You're a Fan / All-Star fantasy / Hockey Songs 
October '00         NAFTA challenge / Stand-Up Guy Award / Devils' Music / McSorley trial / 
                                Sacrilege:  Maple Leaf Gardens, NHL vs CWF, Vezina's remains 
March '00           McSorley:  Black Eye for an Eye for an Eye / NAFTA Promise / Stand-Up Guy Award nominees 
February '00       Toronto Star: Damien Cox 
Jan-Feb'ry '00    Canadian Government Bail-Out / NAFTA 
December '99     Youth Hockey Injuries / Saving Maple Leaf Gardens / On the Air / Holiday Thoughts 
November '99      4 on 4:  Save us, Stevie / '99 Stanley Cup:  Game 7 / Modano:  redeemed? / AOL poll / 
                               Holiday shopping ideas / Site news 
October '99         NHLFA Membership Push / NoGoal.com / Buffalo Snooze / Phoenix Freebie / 
                               Death of Hockey Audio 
September '99    NHL Thugs Gang Up on Hockey Fan Page 
December '98     The Village Voice:  "The Death of Hockey" 
February '98       The New York Times:  "Hockey's Proposed Cures Could Kill the Patient" 


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THE ALL-NEW HOCKEY COMPENDIUM



by JEFF Z. KLEIN and KARL-ERIC REIF

 
published by McClelland & Stewart
 


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