Over at my brand new blog, Sacrifice the Body, I've been working on a investigation of home ice winning trends throughout the playoffs, across the NHL, and for each conference specifically.  I've figured out the home-ice winning percentages (HIW%) by figuring out how many games were played each round, and of those games, how many were won by the home team.  I pulled data from the 1987 playoffs (when the NHL first went to 4 best of 7 series) through the 2009 semifinals, and compiled all my data into a spreadsheet which can be found here.  The results I found were fairly interesting, particularly for the Eastern conference.  

via 1.bp.blogspot.com

Continue reading this post »

So I'm running the DET end of things again for the ANA/DET series over at James' CLS blog.  As its been mentioned a few times here lately, in comments and by Earl on actual posts, Chris Pronger can be seen as something of a Red Wing killer in the postseason.  I figured I'd take a bit of a look at this perception, and see if it was only something that has existed for the last 3 years, or if any trace of his Wing-killing ability was evident in his days in St. Louis, by doing a little bit of research.  Its somewhat limited statistical analysis, but hey, its a start.  

Continue reading this post »

Hey all, thought I'd cross post this over here.  Not sure who is already aware, but over at James O'Brien's Cycle Like the Sedins blog, he's doing satellite blogs for each of the playoff series this year.  I'm contributing on the Red Wings side of the Wings/Blue Jackets blog, and just threw up a quick 5 questions about the series post.  Covered are the keys for the Wings to win, keys for the BJ's to pull the upset, a favorite player for the series, a goat for the series, and a storyline for the series.  You can check the post out here and following is an excerpt.  

Continue reading this post »

I just threw up a giant post about restricted free agency over at Mirtle's From The Rink, and the Sharks really jump out as one of the primary teams that could get victimized this offseason.  I figured anyone here might be interested, and I don't know how many of you cross post between FTF and FTR so figured I'd throw the link up over here. 

Continue reading this post »

Prompted by something I wrote in the comments over at the Battle of California, I thought it might be interesting to gather a bit of information on this summers upcoming Restricted Free Agent crop.  We all know that come July 1st, the GM's of the league will drop obscene amounts of money on the UFA class, but I think the far more interesting portion of free agency is in how the RFA's are handled, especially if anyone besides Kevin Lowe finally decides to step up and shake the branches.  What I find particularly interesting is the fact that RFA becomes a more attractive option as the salary cap (and average player salary) increase, because the compensation never increases.  Perhaps most interesting though is the potential financial ramifactions of using the RFA system, particularly when using it as a financial weapon.  The use of the RFA system as a weapon might be its simplest and most effective use, and yet no GM in the league seems to be prepared for such, and several have allowed themselves to get into precarious situations, where such a lack of foresight could severely hurt a contending team going forward.  Let's take a look at the RFA process as a whole, and I think you'll understand what I mean.

Continue reading this post »

A lot of people expect the Lions to take a QB with the first overall pick in the draft.  But when the market for these rookie QB's is so small, why should the Lions take a QB at the #1 spot, if that QB will still be there at #20?  Let's take a look at who could be interested in a QB between picks 1 and 20.

Continue reading this post »