Ross A goes through hockey stats 101 for those confused or intimidated by them. It’s worth reading, although I don’t think the audience he’s attempting to reach are particularly receptive to olive branches. Like most new things, younger fans will largely embrace it and as time goes on that will become the norm.
Speaking of Ross A, he tackled an excellent topic regarding media influence in sports, but unfortunately only pilloried Steve Simmons at the Toronto Star–as much as Simmons deserves it for inventing a story about Phil Kessel, I was hoping Ross would dive into the moribund journalism practiced in this city.
Binghamton signed undersized Oshawa General defenseman Chris Carlisle (68-7-37-44); he’s almost certainly bound for Evansville.
Somewhat related, I’d speculated a couple of weeks ago that the Sens had cut ties with prospect Tim Boyle; that suspicion was confirmed today as he signed with Wichita in the ECHL. This make’s Boyle‘s journey in becoming a pro quite bizarre, as he was drafted out of US high school, spent one year in the NCAA, returned to the junior system in the US, went to tier-2 college, and is now going to the ECHL Ultimately he’s a wasted pick, a player that no scouting source liked prior to the draft who crashed and burned very quickly. We can only hope the scouting staff learned something from it.
I was surprised to discover the legendary Nichols reads this blog. I can’t recall interacting with him before, but the truism that people gravitate towards perceived negative comments rings true as Nichols hit me up on the Twitter machine:
your comments in regards to my own analysis are ridiculously reductive
He continued his comments in his latest post (I think he liked the alliteration), apparently still blissfully unaware of why I wrote what I wrote (despite a not very subtle hint that he was taking the comments far too seriously–it’s funny how some people respond to these things–good old Bobby Kelly always took things with good humour). One positive was Nichols spelling out his approach to prospects for anyone who wasn’t aware and the key point is this:
The thing about lower draft selections is that they’re selected lower because they have some perceived deficiency which in turn creates tempered expectations for their future because of the associated risks or lower projected ceilings. That does not mean that low draft picks aren’t valuable either. There will always be value in finding NHL-calibre talent that can play games at the highest level.
It’s admittedly a bit obvious, but clarity is a good thing. Incidentally, he’s started up a Patreon to support The 6th Sens podcast, so if you have even a few bucks lying around I highly recommend doing so.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
eyeonthesens 