Bruins Weirdos

[eepstein0]

The Caps are 5-0-0 FWIW

Where's OJ?

I'll have to get back to you on that one

[eepstein0]

The Caps are 5-0-0 FWIW

Where's OJ?

I'll have to get back to you on that one

6-0 after that beat-down of the Flyers. I unfortunately can't go to the Detroit game Saturday Night since I'll be in attendance for Spaz's further destruction of our football program.

[bignick33]

Guffaw at the Flyers losing to the Peg 9-8.

[eepstein0]

Guffaw at the Flyers losing to the Peg 9-8.

Bryzgalov, "I have no confidence right now"

It's a good thing they didn't sign him to.......oh uh wait.

In other news, the Bruins looked awful again last night and the Caps are no longer undefeated. The number of penalties in the Caps/Oilers game was way too many.

[bignick33]

In other news, the Bruins looked awful again last night and the Caps are no longer undefeated. The number of penalties in the Caps/Oilers game was way too many.

The Bruins suck, which is what I've been saying since August. Anyone with half a brain would know that they'll suck this year. That being said, they still may win their shittacular division based solely on their D and superlative goaltending.

[bignick33]

i agree with nick and have a feeling oj's about to get a break from all the hard work he's been doing

...until the second round of the playoffs.

[claver2010]

Anyone who didn't see this coming from the Bs is an idiot. I think they stopped partying 5 minutes ago combined with the longer season.

[bignick33]

[bignick33]

Dom just posted on the EA free board:

Lost interest in that site. Got boring reading the same shlt over and over. There's no real insight or good discussions regarding BC sports over there....mostly just a bunch of aliases attempting to be funny.

[eagle9903]

Dom just posted on the EA free board:

Lost interest in that site. Got boring reading the same shlt over and over. There's no real insight or good discussions regarding BC sports over there....mostly just a bunch of aliases attempting to be funny.

He's awesome.

[bignick33]

Interesting read:

Isolating the impact of goalies
A new stat will change the way you look at netminders

By Peter Keating
ESPN The Magazine

A few issues ago, I wrote about Boston and the rise of statistical analysis in sports ("Why Boston Is Better Than You," Oct. 3). In that story, I ragged on the Bruins, dismissing them as an old-school line-'em-up and beat-'em-up squad. Afterward, I heard from Boston fan kddillon2121, who put forth a theory I hadn't considered, not about the effect of beer in the Red Sox clubhouse but about the B's defense: "The Bruins went against the grain," kddillon2121 wrote, "by becoming a gritty, defensive-minded team instead of splurging on offensive superstars."

Our reader may be on to something. The Bruins have indeed stockpiled defensive forwards like Patrice Bergeron. They did allow just 195 goals last season, third fewest in the NHL. And they did grind their way through three seven-game series, even winning the Cup without center Marc Savard. But before buying into this theory completely, we must consider an oft-posed question: How much of Boston's success in its own zone came from defensive awareness and physical play, and how much came from simply riding its Vezina-winning goalie, Tim Thomas?

Thankfully, there's a new metric to answer that question. It's called the Defense Independent Goalie Ratings (DIGR). It was developed by Michael Schuckers, a statistics professor at St. Lawrence University. DIGR looks at every shot taken in the NHL (more than 70,000 a year) and examines the factors that went into each one: its distance from and angle to the goal, its type (slap shot, wrister, etc.) and the quality of the teams playing. DIGR then maps each goalie response to every combination of those variables. (In 2009-10, for example, the Devils' Martin Brodeur was vulnerable to slap shots taken at even strength from his right.) Finally, DIGR asks how many goals each goalie would have surrendered if he'd faced a league-average number of shots instead of those he actually encountered. Shot quality matters.

This method is similar to adjusting a placekicker's field goal attempts for the distances from which he kicks. Oakland's Sebastian Janikowski has never led the NFL in field goal percentage, but his stats would look a lot better if he didn't attempt an unusually large number of 50-plus-yarders. Likewise, the Blues' Jaroslav Halak ranked just 32nd last year with a save percentage of .9104, but according to Schuckers' work, Halak faced the second-toughest shots in the NHL: An average goalie in his pads would have had a save rate of .9055.

Back to Thomas: He led the NHL in DIGR last season. Excluding penalty-shot attempts, Thomas faced 1,808 shots. An average goalie (save percentage: .9133) would have given up 156.8 goals on those shots, while Thomas (save percentage: .9386) surrendered just 111, for a 45.8 goals differential. But DIGR also reveals that Thomas faced the eighth-easiest shots among all goalies. Against an average distribution of shots, Thomas would have given up 124.4 goals instead of 111, for a difference of 13.4. Add everything up and we can credit 32.4 of Thomas' 45.8 goals differential as his doing and 13.4 to his D making opponents take tough shots. So Thomas was responsible for about 70 percent of the Bruins' defensive advantage over other teams. That's why they won the Stanley Cup.

Still, DIGR shows that it's hard for teams to predict which goalies will turn in superlative seasons. Only the Ducks' Jonas Hiller and the Flyers' Ilya Bryzgalov ranked in the top 10 in DIGR in each of the past two years. Meanwhile, the Islanders' Rick DiPietro had the worst DIGR last season (.8925), and near the bottom were the Oilers' Nikolai Khabibulin (.8999), the Flames' Miikka Kiprusoff (.9020), the Avs' Jean-Sebastien Giguere (.9051) and Brodeur (.9087). Collectively, these guys made $27.5 million last year, more than the top five goalies in Schuckers' ranking. (Thomas made $6 million.)

If any sabermetrics lesson can be drawn from how the Bruins bested 29 other teams, it's this: Be careful what you pay for between the pipes. You may simply be buying a reputation.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/ ... oaltenders

[claver2010]

Rangers 7 in a row

[bignick33]

Rangers 7 in a row

The Rangers are a decent team and obviously improved over last year, but look at the teams they've beaten in this win streak.

[claver2010]

Rangers 7 in a row

The Rangers are a decent team and obviously improved over last year, look at the teams they've beaten in this win streak.

Completely agree but you can only play who is on your schedule and to do this with out their best defensemen is impressive.

They had an absolutely brutal first 2 weeks of the season travel-wise: Stockholm, Stockholm, Long Island, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg.

They have a tough upcoming schedule in a week: @ Washington, Philly, Pittsburgh, @ Carolina, @ Tampa as well.

[bignick33]

Long live the crown!!

http://espn.go.com/boston/nhl/story/_/i ... pacioretty

[eepstein0]

Have the Bruins made the playoffs yet, or do they need one more tie to get in?

The Bruins have ripped off 8 in a row and are 1st in the NHL in goal differential. Team is red hot right now.

[claver2010]

Have the Bruins made the playoffs yet, or do they need one more tie to get in?

The Bruins have ripped off 8 in a row and are 1st in the NHL in goal differential. Team is red hot right now.

But what's their VORP?

[flyingelvii]

Have the Bruins made the playoffs yet, or do they need one more tie to get in?

The Bruins have ripped off 8 in a row and are 1st in the NHL in goal differential. Team is red hot right now.

But what's their VORP?

Value Over Richard Park? Probably a 4 right now.

The funny thing is that Richard Park would probably be a pretty good baseline player for the hockey replacement level player. 3rd/4th liner that plays the PK, is generally responsible defensively and will get around 20 points. Doesn't get more replacement player than that.

[bignick33]

The Bruins are playing so well because they're a dominant 5 on 5 team. Its the same recipe they used in the playoffs last year. They're scoring something like 1.8 even strength goals for every 1 that they allow. It has also helped that they have been relatively healthy and that they played some weaker/younger teams over the last few weeks on whom they have imposed their will fairly easily. Montreal will not back down to the Bruins physical play tonight like some of the the recent opponents have, but I expect the Bruins to be highly motivated to prove that the Habs' home and home sweep a few weeks ago was not represntative of any sort of Montreal superiority.

[eepstein0]

If the B's ever find a power-play, they're going back-to-back.

In other news I'm glad to see that Boudreau had the stones to healthy scratch Alexander Semin last night.

[Endless Mike]

I guess the new SI has an article hinting at Parise wanting to play for the Bruins.

[bignick33]

I guess the new SI has an article hinting at Parise wanting to play for the Bruins.

Link please

[Endless Mike]

I guess the new SI has an article hinting at Parise wanting to play for the Bruins.

Link please

I heard it on Toucher and Rich, haven't seen it. But apparently it's from an interview in Boston in which Parise talks about wanting to play for a contender, then looks up at the Bruins' banner. Something like that.

I mysteriously started getting SI delivered for free, so I'll check it out when the new issue comes.

[b0mberMan]

I mysteriously started getting SI delivered for free, so I'll check it out when the new issue comes.

Aw man. I started getting free issues of Maxim and Flying magazine (the magazine for aviation professionals) but no SI.

[flyingelvii]

What's SI? They got the cap space and it would probably require something like one of Spooner, Knight or Hamilton + a mid-level Pruins guy (Sauve comes to mind) + a 1st rounder. Should have plenty of cap space but not sure if I'd want to break the bank for that move, as good players on ELCs are probably the greatest commodity in the NHL (see: Seguin, Tyler...even though he's got a $3M cap hit), especially the ever elusive puck-moving defenseman, which Hamilton has the potential to be.

[eepstein0]

What's SI? They got the cap space and it would probably require something like one of Spooner, Knight or Hamilton + a mid-level Pruins guy (Sauve comes to mind) + a 1st rounder. Should have plenty of cap space but not sure if I'd want to break the bank for that move, as good players on ELCs are probably the greatest commodity in the NHL (see: Seguin, Tyler...even though he's got a $3M cap hit), especially the ever elusive puck-moving defenseman, which Hamilton has the potential to be.

Feel like Parise could have a bad effect on the Bs

[bignick33]

Millbury just said the Lucic vs. TBD-Sabre tonight will be as satisfying as a "wet fart."

[Salzano14]

This team is built to contend for a Stanley Cup for (easily) the next half a decade. Don't blow up the future just for Zach ****ing Parise.

[bignick33]

This team is built to contend for a Stanley Cup for (easily) the next half a decade. Don't blow up the future just for Zach ****ing Parise.

You say that as if Parise isn't an excellent hockey player...

[flyingelvii]

This team is built to contend for a Stanley Cup for (easily) the next half a decade. Don't blow up the future just for Zach ****ing Parise.

You say that as if Parise isn't an excellent hockey player...

And they aren't really blowing it up by trading a good prospect, a middling one with a 2nd line ceiling and a likely back end first round pick for one of the top wingers in the NHL.