For more projections, CLICK HERE.
9/1/14 | 3:36PM: Marty St. Louis had 61 points in 62 games for Tampa Bay last season before being traded to the Rangers and putting up 1 goal and 7 assists in 19 games.
The Sports Forecaster?has projections for how they think the Rangers centers will perform this coming season.
To see their projections from last year, CLICK HERE.
For more projections for this season, CLICK HERE.
Last season, Dan Boyle scored 12 goals and added 24 assists last season with 6 goals and 12 assists coming on the PP.
Boyle is projected by Dobber Hockey to score 11 goals and add 23 assists this season.
In The Hockey News Pool Guide, Boyle is projected to play in 74 games and score 12 goals and add 34 assists. They write that Boyle is still "blasting away" on the point and should get double digit goals.
Rick Nash's career high in points is 79 and only three other times in his career has he cracked the 60 point mark.
In 2013, Nash had 42 points in 44 games which puts him on a 78 point pace.
Nash has 10 straight 20 goal seasons and has scored 30 goals in 7 of those seasons.
Richards played 3:40 per game on the PP. Brassard played 2:31 per game. Richards PP minutes though are likely to go to Dan Boyle since Richards played the point.
Sports Forecaster has Brassard scoring 17 goals and 30 assists this season.
Other projections have Brassard between 40 and 50 points.
Sports Forecaster is a Canadian Fantasy Hockey Magazine that has projections for how many points the Rangers wingers may put up this season.
To see last year's projections, CLICK HERE.
For more stats projections, CLICK HERE.
Sports Forecaster is a Canadian Fantasy Hockey Magazine that has projections for how many points the Rangers defense may put up this season.
They have McDonagh and Boyle on the top PP unit and Girardi and Moore on the second PP unit.
They have Stepan seeing time on the top PP unit and Brassard on the second PP unit.
7/28/14 | 8:43AM In The Hockey News Pool Guide, they have Derick Brassard playing in 78 games, scoring 15 goals and adding 28 assists.
Brassard had 18 goals and 27 assists last season.
Last year The Hockey News had Brassard at 17 goals and 34 assists in 78 games.
The Hockey News has released their 2014-15 Yearbook and have the Rangers finishing third in the Metro Division behind the Penguins and Blue Jackets.
This would set up a first round match up with Columbus for the Rangers.
The Hockey News has Washington finishing fourth in the Metro.
They have St. Louis seeing time on the first PP unit and Zuccarello on the second PP unit.
To see the RW projections from last year, CLICK HERE.
They have Nash on the first PP and Kreider on the second PP.
8/8/14| 11:04AM: The Hockey News Pool Guide has Rick Nash scoring 31 goals and adding 22 assists in 76 games.
They write that while Nash doesn't score in the playoffs, there is no risk of him doing that in the regular season.
8/4/14 | 2:35PM: In The Hockey News Pool Guide, Derek Stepan is projected to score 17 goals and add 42 assists.
They say that Stepan's durability and consistency is what leads to his production and they point out that he has never missed a regular season game in his four years in the NHL.
In The Hockey News Pool Guide, Chris Kreider is projected to play in 75 games for the Rangers and score 27 goals and add in 25 assists.
In their write up for Kreider they say that he is best known for taking out Carey Price but "he will soon be best known for scoring goals."
Two-years ago, after Kreider's debut in the playoffs, The Hockey News projected 50 points.
Click HERE to see the point totals from last year's Pool Guide.
The Hockey News has released their fantasy "Pool Guide" for the 2014-15 season.
On Lundqvist, they say that year after year he is one of the best goalies in the league and that won't change anytime soon.
Matthew Lombardi was not listed.
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?Let's take a look at how the Panthers are stacking up. ?
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?Let's take a look at how the Dolphins are stacking up. ?
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?Let's take a look at how the Ravens are stacking up. ?
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?Let's take a look at how the Bills are stacking up. ?
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?With the Jets on a bye, it is time for some self scouting. ?
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?Let's take a look at how this weekend's opponent, the Bengals, are stacking up. ?
A common complaint I've seen from Islanders fans on the internet has been with the play of Pierre-Marc Bouchard. 'He plays too soft! He doesn't hit! He isn't scoring either! Why isn't he scratched for Brock Nelson?' Bouchard was the Islanders' biggest acquisition in the offseason; a one-year, 2 Million dollar "show me" deal and was thought to be the Isles replacement for Brad Boyes and PA Parenteau. But despite a week in preseason on line one, he has bounced around two different lines so far and has yet to produce much offensive numbers. So the general line of thinking is that, 9 games in, he's a bust and part of the problem the Isles have had so far.If you know my writing at all, you shouldn't be surprised when I tell you that this general line of thinking is VERY wrong. Pierre-Marc Bouchard has been one of the most effective Islanders on the ice so far for the team on 5-on-5, regardless of which line he has been on!You see, one of the most effective ways of telling whether a team is winning the battles in a game of hockey while a player is on the ice isn't to count how often that player hits or to look at how many shots he is blocking, but rather to see which team is getting more shots while that player is on the ice. You can do this by looking at the amount of shots on goal for each team while that player is on the ice; alternatively you can look just at shots on goal and missed shots while a player is on the ice (this is also known as fenwick, or unblocked shot attempts), or at all shot attempts while that player is on the ice, including missed and blocked shots (also known as corsi). Take a look at these numbers for Bouchard and how they rank among Islander forwards:With Bouchard on the Ice 5-on-5, the Islanders are:Outshooting opponents: 53-37 in shots on goal (1st among Isles' forwards)Outshooting opponents: 68-64 in unblocked shot attempts (fenwick) (2nd among Isles' forwards to Josh Bailey)Outshooting opponents: 90-81 in shot attempts (corsi) (1st among Isles' forwards)That's right; in shot differential PMB is either #1 or #2 among Islanders forwards. In fact, only 2-4 Islander forwards are not being outshot by these numbers. Bouchard and Josh Bailey are outshooting opponents by all three metrics, while Peter Regin and Matt Martin are at least even in shots on goal, although Martin's #s get worse when you look at missed and blocked shots.What exactly does this mean? Well it means simply this: the Islanders are spending a greater percentage of time in the opponents' zone with PMB on the ice than any other Islanders forward.
Could this be not because of PMB but instead because of Bouchard's linemates? Well, look at the shot attempt differential numbers of Bouchard's two centers with and without PMB:Frans Nielsen without PMB: 40.7% shot-attempt differntial (Corsi).Frans Nielsen with PMB: 54.1% shot-attempt differentialPeter Regin without PMB: 47.3% shot-attempt differentialPeter Regin with PMB: 55.2% shot-attempt differentialYes, both of PMB's two centers, with whom he's played roughly equal time, show much better results with PMB at left wing than without PMB. This by the way continues a trend from the last three years where players playing with PMB showed much better results with him than without him on the Minnesota Wild (see right).Nor are these results because PMB is getting a lot of offensive zone faceoffs. Regin's basically gotten the same amount of D-zone faceoffs as O-zone faceoffs and half of his results are with Frans Nielsen on the line that is meant to handle opponents' best forwards. So his results aren't due to facing weak competition either.Simply put, these numbers continue to show that Bouchard has been an ASSET to this team -- making those he plays with better and tilting the ice in the Islanders' favor -- and whose play is important to this team's success. Much like another winger named Pierre picked up off the scrap heap three years ago, this guy is very underrated.
None of this praise is to say that Bouchard has been perfect. He hasn't. For example, while his ability to raise his teammates performance has continued on the Isle, his shooting ability hasn't.During the last three years, PMB has averaged a little over seven shots on goal per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play. This season, PMB is averaging 3.8 shots on goal per 60, roughly half the shooting production from the years prior (and PMB didn't play an offensive role for the Wild either). PMB has actually been a good shooter the last three years, but if he shoots the puck this infrequently, that won't matter much. PMB isn't just here to help his teammates -- although that's a big help -- but also to provide production on his own, and he hasn't yet done that.Still, whatever his individual faults, through nine games it certainly seems like PMB has made whoever he's played with much better at keeping the puck in the offensive end. Perhaps that's something that fans should value, rather than begging for him to be scratched because he doesn't do it in a flashy way. Hockey is about winning, not looking good doing it.
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?Let's take a look at how the Patriots are stacking up. ?
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?Let's take a look at how the Falcons are stacking up. ?
ExtraSkater.com compiles advanced statistics on a per game basis and has information on last night's Rangers loss to the Coyotes.
The line of Mats Zuccarello, Derick Brassard and Benoit Pouliot started 66.7% of their shifts at even strength in the neutral zone and 16.7% in both the offensive and defensive zone.
We at TJB love advanced statistics and have long been fans of Football Outsiders. ?Now that the season is underway, we're going to take a look at the weekly opponents through the overall and unit rankings through the lens of Football Outsiders. ?But before we do, let's take a look at how the Titans are stacking up. ?
One of our favorite sites to understand what is happening with the Jets in relation with the rest of the league is Football Outsiders. ?In-season, every Tuesday they release their efficiency rankings based on how a given team performed against their opponents (cumulative as the season goes on) in all three phases of the game and how that stacks up against the rest of the league.
Football Outsiders uses a regressive analytic formula they call DVOA, a?system that breaks down every single NFL play and compares a team's performance to a league baseline based on situation in order to determine value over average. ?Learn more about it here.
Last year the Jets post-Week 1 rank proved a cautionary tale. ?The Jets ranked 6th overall after their Week 1 blowout of the Bills, yet the team ended the season tumbling down to the league's 27th ranked team. ?So, with that in mind, check out how the Jets did in Week 1.
Alain Vigneault was unusually specific in his introduction as Rangers? head coach, offering strategy insights alongside the usual clich?s of first press conferences. Specifically, Vigneault confirmed that he will bring his famed zone-matching strategy to New York, leaving Rangers fans to speculate what changes that might mean for next year?s team.
Vigneault designates certain lines as his offensive and defensive zone lines, instead of using a checking line, which traditionally matches up against opponents? top players. This system exploits the favorable player vs. player matchups.
Advanced Metrics website Behind the Net tracks a statistic named Zone Start that tracks how often a player starts his shift in the offensive zone and how often a player finishes his shift in the offensive zone.
For more on this stat,? CLICK HERE.
This is something that Alain Vigneault used a lot in Vancouver.
The pressure for the Rangers to add to?their forward depth?eased somewhat with news that Ryan Callahan?s shoulder injury was not as serious as originally feared. Instead of a full dislocation, Callahan suffered a partial subluxation and will miss between 10 ? 14 days as opposed to possibly six weeks or longer. But because the Rangers were in search for more help at forward prior to Cally?s injury and tried to sign Jason Arnott as a result, it?s likely they will continue to scour the market looking for the right fit.
With Arnott officially eliminated by Glen Sather and the Rangers, other players linked recently to the club are: Daymond Langkow, Petr Sykora and Brian Rolston. One player still available as a free agent but unlikely to play this season is Dominic Moore. Moore?s wife recently passed away from liver cancer and hockey is surely the last thing on Moore?s mind at this difficult time.
Before we get into the advanced stats, my preferred method of player comparison, let?s take a look at the players through a different prism; my fans eye.
How Much Was Santonio Missed?
On Tuesday during his press conference, Rex mentioned the loss of their star receiver Santonio Holmes and what effect it had on the offense. ?With that in mind, Kristian Dyer looked into how the Jets performed with and without Santonio.
In the first four games of the season (Holmes was injured in the fourth quarter of the fourth game), the offense averaged 284 yards per game. Shockingly, the offense in fact improved to average 304.25 yards per game after the Holmes injury. So without a player whose absence Ryan claimed negatively impacted the team, the Jets actually averaged 20 yards per game more without Holmes.
Of course though those numbers don't exist in a vacuum, since the Jets played a bunch of really bad team at the very end of the season. ?Even so, it's not good that their offense was better without him than with him. ?The real determiner of Santonio against the team (we think) is Jeremy Kerley.
Now that Sanchez has been benched for however long, here's a quick look at just how bad Mark's season has been. ?While this is all in isolation, looking at any any middle-tier quarterback, numbers like these are not the rule.
Passer Rating?-- Mark Sanchez had five games (SFO, HOU, SEA, ARI, TEN) with a passer rating under 55.
Turnovers?-- Sanchez had nine games (@MIA, SFO, HOU, @NWE, MIA, SEA, NWE, ARI, TEN)?in which he committed more than one turnover via interception or fumble lost.
We try to look at the Jets opponents every week and take some of the statistical numbers from?Football Outsiders?to better understand what the Jets will be facing on Sunday. ?Reminder, positive percentages are good on offense and specials, bad on defense.