Dick Rosenthal {l Wrote}:Could someone tell me what Bob Gainey's CORSI was? I have searched the Interwebs and the best I can find are a couple of hockey nerds reconstructing his CORSI from old game tape and determining it sucks and that ipso facto the stat is garbage. Can we find some measurable that actually has some validity?
And with respect to Gionta, I am amazed at how good a defensive forward he has become. He no longer has the explosive speed that he had at at the beginning of his career and the ability to disrupt by being a lot faster into the passing lanes than the opposition expected, but he has become an excellent positional defensive forward. He also uses his low center of gravity in the corners very well. They gave him the most prestigious "C" in professional sports for a reason and I suspect it has something to do with how much he sacrifices and has adapted for the team.
It's really only gained steam the last few years so probably not. And it's certainly not the end all, be all stat, just a quick and dirty look when you haven't been able to watch a player. The theory goes that the more shots you have, the more possession you probably have. The more possession, the better chance of winning since you can't score if you don't have the puck. There are certainly some discrepancies for some players, Seidenberg is one that jumps into my head, that pass the eye test but have shit Corsi's. They try to adjust for quality of competition so as not to punish guys that play a shutdown role and are matched against another team's best line but that's well over my head and I can't speak to it's overall effectiveness, though people that know more about math than me seem to deem it reasonable. Like most things, it's just one data point that can be used in the overall evaluation and certainly doesn't paint an entire picture but it's useful.
Agree on the Gionta points.
And to answer Teddy's question, it was a positive Corsi play as it measures shot attempts as a means to glean possession. Which he took to mean it is the perfect stat and if you have a higher Corsi you are the de facto better player.