On Friday, the NHL announced the launch of their new "enhanced" stats. The new page on the NHL website contains all the traditional stats we have come to know and love, but it also includes stats like corsi, fenwick, and PDO.
The layout of the new stats pages are much cleaner and straightforward than the original stats page. There are also more bar charts with pictures of players that change. So that is probably a good thing. Not sure that showing us a picture of Tarasenko really enhances our statistical knowledge of how he plays but it sure is neat to look at I guess.
There are links across the top that take you to the usual stats pages we have been using: Leaders, Players, Teams, Games. But there is a new link at the top, "Enhanced Stats." What are the enhanced stats you ask? This is the NHL's terminology for what we have been calling #Fancystats or "advanced" stats. This is the NHL finally providing stats like Corsi, Fenwick and PDO. Except in the interest of making these statistics more widely accessible, they have changed the names to something a bit more descriptive.
#Fancystats name |
NHL Name |
Description from NHL.com |
Corsi For |
Shot Attempts For (SAT For) |
Calculation = (5 on 5): Team shots on goal + team missed shots + opponent blocked shots (excluding empty net). Also called Corsi for |
Corsi Against |
Shot Attempts Against (SAT Against) |
Calculation = (5 on 5): opponent shots on goal + opponent missed shots + team blocked shots (excluding empty net). Also called Corsi against |
Corsi |
Shot Attempts |
SAT For - SAT Against |
Fenwick For |
Unblocked Shot Attempts For (USAT For) |
Calculation = (5 on 5): (5 on 5): team shots on goal + team missed shots (excluding empty net). Also called Fenwick for |
Fenwick Against |
Unblocked Shot Attempts Against (USAT Against) |
Calculation = (5 on 5): (5 on 5): opponent shots on goal + opponent missed shots (excluding empty net). Also called Fenwick against |
Fenwick |
Unblocked Shot Attempts (USAT) |
USAT For - USAT Against |
PDO |
Shooting % Plus Save % (SPSV%) |
SPSV% is 5-on-5 on-ice shooting percentage plus 5-on-5 on-ice save percentage. It is usually expressed out of 1000 and it trends toward 1000 over the long term. Very broadly, SPSV% can indicate "puck luck"... |
The NHL also calculates all the variations on these stats such as the percentage for, relative, and per 60 and per 20. They are also providing score close, ahead, and behind variations of these stats. Essentially they are providing what most "advanced" stats site currently provide, except now it is officially coming from the NHL.
This is actually just the first part of a multi-stage roll out of advanced stats. In the article released on NHL.com they also announced that they would be including historical game sheets, more data visualizations, the ability to be able to compare players, and other statistical tools such as a playoff predictor.
The NHL has been long overdue for providing these types of stats to their fans and teams through their website. The other major North American sports leagues have already been providing this level of information to their fans and media analysts for years now. And now that the NHL has finally embraced the future, it will definitely change the way hockey is played and the way general managers manage their clubs now. Keeping in mind, however, that many hockey clubs already have some version of their own analytics that they have been using including possession stats like corsi and fenwick. As Grant wrote about last week in his article, this now opens up these stats to be used in arbitration cases as well by agents and teams to justify a player's contract request.
So far, the major "advanced" stats sites have all announced that they intend to keep providing the same data they have been providing so far. They have no plans to shut down their sites in light of the NHL now providing similar data. And props to the NHL for making it known that they do not have any intention to attempt to shut down those sites. So regardless of if you are a fan of War-on-Ice, hockeystats.ca, Behind The Net, or HockeyAnalysis, you will still be able to use these sites to get your stats fix for the foreseeable future.