What do you want to learn about hockey?
Hey everyone: as you probably have noticed, I've been writing a series of pieces teaching hockey this summer. So far we've covered neutral zone play, transition play, PP's, and PK's. As I begin to wrap the series up, I'm planning to do a mailbag style post where I answer any questions from the readers who have always wanted to learn specific things about the sport.
So, with that in mind, what has everyone wanted to learn about hockey that I haven't covered yet and would be decently easily answerable? I've already gotten a question about line changes, but send in whatever questions you have and I'll do my best to get to as many as possible!
Sort of related to hockey basics, how to watch hockey? It's such a quick game that I can sometimes see a play developing but usually I'm just following the puck while glancing around to see where other players are.
An introduction to House and CORSI would probably be helpful to go along with what you’ve covered on the front page posts. Giving sort of a basic analytics tidbit to go along with the general strategies you’ve covered. Without doing a deep dive into the analytics.
Excellent work so far by the way. Even for someone like myself that is already knowledgeable on the intricacies of the game, it’s still a great read.
Ditto! I think of myself as pretty hockey fluent (played for 12 years, have remained a fan since) and data fluent (am a biochemist/researcher). I'll admit that I haven't chased down any CORSI lit or even a wikipedia page (i.e., I've been lazy), but in passing CORSI splits often seem like the product of a random number generator.
I guess I'd love to up my fluency in hockey advanced stats in general.
Quick explanation of Corsi is a measurement of shot attempts per team. Which includes shots that miss the net and shots that are blocked. What it ends up being is a measurement of puck possession. Teams with higher Corsi For than Corsi Against typically are controlling the play, which can be broken down to individual players Corsi For and Corsi Against when you want to get deeper into the analytics of who your better all-around players are.
You can go a little more in-depth than that and what it means when analyzing teams, so hopefully I didn’t write the article for him there lol.
Me and every other college hockey fan would love to know why the NCAA is dead set on screwing up the post season tournament with their one and done bullshit.
as a corollary, why the hell choose Allentown Pa. for anything under the sun
1 and done is fine. Win your games. Cannot make the NCAAs the 2 month-long injury fest that the Stanley Cup is.
Problem with the current NCAA setup is no campus sites.
Bring back campus sites.
problem is, hockey is already a high variance sport. One or two bounces can determine the outcome of an entire game, so in a single elimination format you rarely have the best team actually win the tournament. Which, fine, but when you have fan bases that judge a coach on championships it can get pretty dicey. A best of three series to determine who advances in each round would add a maximum of 12 games for a team (going to Game 3 in all four series) and would eliminate a lot of the “puck luck” that eliminates the better teams in a single elimination.
Just for example, of the four 1 seeds this past year, two lost their opening game (BC advanced without playing their opening game due to ND being eliminated by CoVid). Zero of them made it to the Frozen Four. So of the four teams that separated themselves as the best all season long, none of them were in the Frozen Four.
Listen. It's a tournament. If you're supposedly the #1 team in the country and you still lose to AF or Mercyhurst, then you don't deserve to be the national champs.
Listen, it’s a sport where the better team doesn’t always win. The team that plays better doesn’t always win. You can dominate your opponent all game and still lose.
Hockey is unlike pretty much any other sport in that regard. And due to its low scoring nature, a single bounce can alter the course of an entire game. Which is why the best teams are rarely the ones who win it. So it makes more sense to create a mini series to ensure the better team makes it out instead of “yeah just win and hope everything goes your way.”
I don't know much about hockey, but what I do know I learned from the Hanson Brothers. I think that's all I really need to know, frankly.
I don’t understand whether drafted players have already played for Michigan or will play for Michigan or both.
How to make myself interested in hockey... seriously.
You have to see it up close. Get tickets to LCA (or whatever your local pro rink is), and splurge on seats within 15 rows of the glass.
It makes a huge difference in appreciating the pace, skill involved, and intensity.
Similar, but I like to splurge for the best seats at center ice but in the 2nd or upper deck. The increase in height over the playing surface really allows you to see everything going on, plus there is usually nobody in front of me.
Did that for game 2 of the Lighting/Islanders series this year and it was a blast.
+1
Being closer to the ice really puts you in the middle of the intensity but sitting further up really allows you to see plays develop and see what the game is really all about.
Honestly, for the casual fan, college hockey might be even better. Yost is a much more enjoyable experience than a half empty LCA, and the atmosphere of college hockey arenas are awesome to be involved in.
Yost has an absolutely incredible atmosphere!
I'll give it a shot. Thanks Vladdy.
Not picking on you but when I hear stuff like this. it perplexes me. Hockey has all the elements of what people like in sports in one single thing.
People like the NFL because of big plays and hitting.
Hockey has that.
People like scoring.
Hockey has that. And when it's a goal duel, hockey is still exciting.
People like sports where there is lots of speed.
Hockey is the fastest of the B4.
People like fighting.
Hockey is the only B4 where you can fight without getting suspended.
Hockey has the best playoffs of them all.
Baseball and football and golf take 4 hours to play.
Hockey is done in about 104 minutes.
The average hockey player would kick the shit out of LeBron James or any diving soccer player.
How can there be a lack of interest in hockey?
Yeah, I don't know man. I've tried getting into it, I haven't gone to any games in quite a while. I used to like it (still not like FB or BB) when I was younger but now I just can't seem to engage. I'll give it another go this year.
Watch Connor McDavid
1 - Set plays. I've heard of "Umbrella" and know there are others. When are they used? Are they called by the coach or a player on the ice? Are they specifically called after a time-out?
2 - Offensive Zone face-offs. Why do offensive wings sometimes move back towards the point, along the circle (around the face-off dot) instead of staying should-to-shoulder with the defensive wing?
TIA
What do players do to get kicked out of the face off circle, never understood it.
Short answer: power trip for the official.
real answer: someone either lined up incorrectly or is committing another minor infraction (player arriving late to the face off circle is a common one)
Or moving too early.
Yeah that’s another one of the common minor infractions
Because they don't drop the fucking puck.
That’s the power trip part lol
How do they make hockey pucks!
Very dumb question: What is the case that looks like a large case of poker chips one of the assistants carries to and from the bench each period?
I basically know the answers to these questions, but I think they're the type a new fan might have:
How about an explanation of penalties. Interference is one that seems to be up for interpretation at times. What is the difference between charging and boarding? Why is cross-checking a penalty, but for the most part goes uncalled in the playoffs? How is roughing determined? Why is elbowing a separate penalty from roughing? Which body checks are considered clean, and which are considered dirty? Also, when is a player allowed out of the penalty box? Sometimes a player gets out, and other times they stay in. And finally, why was Bobby Clarke allowed to slash opponents without penalty his entire career?
I’d like breakdowns of various offensive and defensive styles and formations
I think it would be good to highlight the two or three major offensive schemes that hockey teams use, and describe their respective strengths and weaknesses, and how to spot each kind. It would help the casual fan like me know what is happening.
What makes a hit illegal?? I think I get the basics (no hitting from behind, no hitting a defenseless player and no head shots) but it seems inconsistent when a penalty gets called (or is it like "what is a foul in basketball", where it's different from game to game)
Which is the good Shegos?