November 26, 2014

Rick Nash & Tomas Jurco: When a Slump Becomes Something More

Last year as the Rangers made a run to the Stanley Cup Finals, talk centered on the play of Rick Nash. Despite posting 26 goals during a 65 game regular season, he went 14 games without a goal to start the playoffs. As the slump continued, talk of a potential trade or even a buyout surrounded Nash. This talk only increased when the Rangers fell to the Kings by the slimmest of margins. With Nash only registering 3 goals in the 25 playoff games, at some point it became more than a simple slump.


November 13, 2014

James Russell Howard III


 With a couple days off there has been little to report on the Red Wings. We are 15 games in and I am pretty satisfied with the teams play at this point. While only 5th in the division, a single win would jump the Wings all the way to 3rd and put them only 3 points out of 1st. As discussed in my first month review, the possession numbers have also been very good suggesting this success should continue. The biggest improvements have been in their defensive play and in Jimmy Howard’s return to form. While my shot tracking project should shed some light on this going forward, for now I wanted to take a look at what has changed between this year and last on the defensive/Jimmy Howard front.

November 3, 2014

System Analysis: We Lost to the Sabres?!?

Last night the Red Wings dominated possession but a inability to finish as well as a few defensive miscues allowed Buffalo to hang around and steal the win. After the game, Smith was asked about the two goals against the Red Wings. Te reported hinted that since they were the result of scrambles in front, the blame falls on the defensemen. Smith was very quick to disagree with him and talked about how it was more about getting pucks out of the zone and problems with their defensive system than the D clearing out bodies in front. I'm going to take a quick look at the goal and I’ll show you why I think this instance, Smith is absolutely correct.

November 1, 2014

Red Wings First Month Review

We are officially one month into the hockey season. After 10 games the Red Wings find themselves with a 6-2-2 record, good for 14 points, 4th best in the league. While it is still a bit early to make any definitive claims about the Red Wing's future, I'll take a look to see how we got here and give some of my observations on the Wings play to this point.