-The lockout is here, but how long it lasts remains to be seen. I still don’t envision the league missing many games, but that sadly hasn’t prevented it from having an impact on workers tied to the arena.
–Kevin Forbes believes the lockout provides a great opportunity for development leagues like the CHL. It will make the quality of the hockey of junior, minor, and some European professional leagues step up for an abbreviated time, but it also means players who don’t belong in those leagues are taking minutes away from others who really need them.
-One of the most amusing aspects of the CBA negotiations is that while the NHL pumped out rhetoric about their financial woes and the need of a new deal, general managers were desperately trying to sign any and every player they could under the old CBA. Unlike the missed 2004-05 season, where ownership cut back on the number of players signed (Boston had to sign an entire team post-lockout), there’s no sense of the status quo effecting GM’s or organisations.
–Nichols writes a critique of an ESPN article, but I’m less interested in that than the stats behind the article he’s critiquing. Matthew Coller used the VUKOTA system of projection in the NHL (the VUKOTA Projection System uses statistical data to project what an NHL player would do in their next season by comparing them to similar, post-1967 NHL players (1967 being the year that the NHL first officially recorded statistics to calculate GVT [goals-versus-threshold] data). This kind of projection can’t hope to succeed because it uses data over different eras (it’s also exceedingly vague). I caution hockey fans to be very careful when using projection metrics until they look into them–context is everything.
–Bruce Dowbiggin offers the interesting theory that the NHL must come to terms with the NHLPA no later than November 22nd in order to meet their commitments to HBO’s Winter Classic (which also ties in with the league’s deal with NBC). I’m not sure how much stock to put into the theory, but I encourage you to check out the full article.
-If the lockout extends into the NHL season I will still be posting regularly about Binghamton and Sens prospects in Elmira, the CHL, and Europe. There will be much food for thought no matter what happens.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 