Thursday, November 10, 2011

Take off your Hawks and Jacket: The third

8:04 - Boss Hoss has them Jacket boys in a whole heap of pickle.

8:09 - I kinda feel Mason's pain.

8:28 - Obviously Mason's let some by him tonight, but the announcers sitting here saying "Columbus needs to go get a goalie" is a bit of a cheap shot, imo.

8:29 - Speaking of cheap shots...

Hawks v BJs: 2

7:09- man, I kinda feel bad for Mason on that. Not that I wanna give the goal back...

7:23- this is more what I was expecting tonight

7:27- Niemi says no! Wait...

Hawks v BJs: 1

6:11- iPad is already acting weird. I am not sure what is worse, our power play or apple autocorrect.

6:13- did we just forget which net is ours?

6:22- evidence that goals don't need to be pretty.

6:28- what happened to our damn penalty kill? Though to be fair that was probably more on Crawford.

6:30- I submit that getting scored on by a guy named Clitsome is acceptable.

6:32- this I vow, dear reader, I will drink a beer for every goal scored on us.

6:38- urg, more pretty passing followed by no shot on goal.

6:44- this is why we love Tazer, this in includes you

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

NHL Alternative Power Rankings

So here I am going over ESPN's latest power rankings http://espn.go.com/nhl/powerrankings and I'm noticing how from week to week some of the teams wildly fluctuate.  Which makes me wonder what the hell good these weekly rankings are.  So over the course of a beer I get thinking "well what if we averaged the rankings, would that give us a better idea than week to week?"  And that led to a lot of paper scratching, some smart phone calculator usage, and the following four (yes four) power rankings.  Below their description:

1) Complete Average - I used all 6 weeks of ESPN's power rankings, including their pre-season rankings before any games were played.  This not only gives a sense of completeness, but also factors in the opinion of better sports minds than me on how teams were being evaluated at the outset based on coaching staffs, talent levels, and before injuries, suspensions, and schedule strength mucked with things.  I added up each team's rankings over the 6 weeks, divided by 6 to get a single score, and then ranked the teams from lowest score (highest rank) to highest score (lowest rank).  So if a team was ranked 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, and 5 over 6 weeks, they would've got a total of 13/6 = 2.17.  This would rank them higher than any team with a higher score.  Some teams divided out to identical scores, so I ranked them as tied in a single ranking spot.

2) Playtime Average - I did the same thing, but excluded the pre-season rankings and divided by 5.  This ranking only reflects weeks in which teams actually played.

3) Recent Average - Same thing, but this time I only used the last three weeks divided by 3.  This doesn't reflect early success, only how teams have been playing the past couple weeks.

4) Weighted Average - I took the 5 week total, then added the three week total in again, and divided by 8.  This still gives teams a benefit for early success, allowing for a team with a hot start to enter a slump they can dig out of, but does weight recent success as a better indicator of how a team will perform right now.

Full Rankings below the jump...

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Chicago Blackhawsk @ St. Louis Blues

7:10- That last game, the one against the collection of misshapen British smiles known as the Vancouver Canucks, almost killed me. I wanted to hurt myself and others. Well, with this blog tonight, I'm taking care of the "others" part.

7:14- With the NBA locked out, Comcast Chicago has taken to showing classic JOrdan-era Bulls games. That... will work, Comcast. That will do just fine.

7:19- Did it The Blues just learn about the Lokomotiv tragedy this afternoon? Because seriously, this could've been scheduled a lot better.

7:21- Pat Foley- "It's a little late, but who cares?" I care. I mean, I'm a post 9-11 American, I get fetishizing tragedy. But goddammit, two months after that, the Yankees were playing their games on time.

7:36- The Blues' new head coach- Alfred Hitchcock, or some damn thing- admits that putting Kane and Toews on separate lines messes up his plans on how to defend them. How nice of him, to reveal that he only planned for one circumstance.

7:23- Is the anthem singer holding a hat? Will he pass it later for donations?

7:24- This guy is shifting keys more than that little guy at the end of the second Matrix movie.

7:27- Wait, why the fuck are the 'Hawks in their home sweaters? Is the Scott Trade center actually in East St. Louis?

7:33- The Blues' forwards might try receiving a pass, rather than just limply swatting at it as it bounces past them.

7:38- Sobotka scores for the Blues. Guess he finally got the port of Baltimore dredged.

7:42- And Carcillo's picked a fight. FIGHTS TOTALLY PUT POINTS ON THE BOARD, RIGHT?

7:50- The announcers are telling us how John Scott has it switching between offense and defense. The only thing worse than watching John Scott skate is listening to the Ballad of John Scott.

8:25- Right now, the 'Hawks look like dirt that's been fucked by an elephant. BUT OH, THEY'VE GOT GRIT, NOW.

8:28- Finally, the 'Hawks get a PP. Oh, wait, their PP is a horrifying spiraling descent into my most depressing nightmares.

8:31- That was the Stephen King's "The Shining" of Power Plays. That third clear was the elevator full of blood.

8:34- I hate few things more than I hate these tequila commercials. Why is this 34 year old douchebasket talking like the Shit My Dad Says guy?

8:40- The last five minutes of this game have been so terrible, I think one of these stumblefucks stepped on MY dick.

8:45- Did someone coat the ice with anal lube?

8:48- This game is worse than that "Party at the Top of the World" song.

8:51- We're through 40 minutes, and the 'Hawks look worse than Lindsay Lohan is going to look in her Playboy pictorial.

8:52- Yeah, "pictorial". 'Cause it's the classy way to show folks your tatties.

9:12- Pat Foley makes a joke about "magnetic boards", indicating that the players are really pinned to the boards. Steve Konroyd is following up on that like it's actually a thing.

9:31- OH GEE LOOK, THE GAME ENDED EARLY. Time to watch the New Girl.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Hawks/Panthers: period 3

8:28- dude when even Tazer is owning u....give up

8:29- hey errybody let's play my favorite game: how much ofnthe hawks pp will be spent on hawk side of the ice

8:30- Hossa shoulda shot that.

9:13- for the record crawsome has 41 saves, and it still went to shootout

Hawks v Panthers: period the first

6:42 - forecheck is looking good

6:44 - glad to see Tazer telling Kane he might get all the poon, but he won't get all the goals

6:49- for the record, Mayer just showed you all how to kick some ass.

6:51- I think he learned that style from Ben Walker trying to keep John Scott off the ice.

6;53- last time I saw Ed go thru someone like taxer just did he put a finger up their ass

6:54- is it bad I still get nervous when Crawford goes behind the net?

6:55- good save. #crawfordoccupiesmyheart

6:57- I have seen stronger one touches on my floor hockey team than that chip by brunette

7:00- I am always impressed with our passing but we get too cute sometimes

7:14- good period. Panthers lose 67% of games they are down after the first period.

Hawks v Panthers: pregame

6:27- Panthers have 33% win pct when they don't lead after the first. Hawks are scoring more goals, so that's encouraging. Panthers need power play to score. 11/28 goals this season coming from pp.

6:31 - hawks are killing 92% of penalties, third in league. That v the fact the panthers needbthe pp to score 40% of their goals means we SHOULD get the dub tonite, which we need with this road stretch

6:35- typing on the iPad tonite. That is my first and last apology for typos and bad grammar. As per usual I make no apologies for foul language