What we write about

Hello folks, welcome to hockeythoughts.

This is a free flowing blog with no real agenda or topical assignments. But this is what you can expect if you follow the page on twitter or facebook, or pop in once in a while to see what’s up.

  1. I am a Winnipeg Jets fan and have followed them since the 2005 Thrashers. I will write about them. I miss Ilya Kovalchuk.
  2. I live in BC and am proximal to a lot of Canucks fans and am very familiar with their team. They will also get attention. I miss the Sedins.
  3. I live in Canada and find every Canadian team other than Calgary to be at pretty interesting points right now. Lots of star power up north. They will also get attention.
  4. I find rebuilds and that process really interesting. Teams like Detroit, Columbus, Ottawa, Arizona, Seattle, Buffalo, and New Jersey are examples of teams I will probably write something about – a check-in of some sorts to see how they’re doing and if they’re accumulating enough talent.
  5. This also includes past rebuilds. How the F did Carolina get so good? Tampa? St. Louis? Rangers? I find looking at a successful rebuild fun too and making comparisons.
  6. Finally, the NHL entry draft fascinates me and I really enjoy projecting young players and deciding what’s possible for them. I’m pretty much a wannabe scout who writes to exercise that wannabe-ness. 
  7. Though (at this point) I have no intention of writing fantasy hockey, the style of article from points 4 through 6 can be used to help you acquire or judge upcoming talent for your fantasy team. Often, it’s young guys I’ve picked up on my fantasy teams or players that I notice while watching games that will pique my interest and that I’ll write about. For example, I was early on Josh Norris, and it makes me feel good about myself.
  8. I am subscribed to hockeyviz.com and evolving-hockey.com. They are both “fancy stats” websites that produce really cool content and metrics which help me define a narrative for a given topic. That type of numerical analysis isn’t for everyone, but I do find it interesting and you can expect some articles to be pretty heavy on it. As much as I can, I try and write in simple terms with my own observations and simple statistics. But I also can’t ignore the emergence of fancy stats like shots for %, expected goals for or against, and goals above replacement. They’re all part of the hockey writer’s toolbelt.
  9. I might bitch about the point system once in a while because I find it ridiculous that you can theoretically never win a game, going 0-0-82 and finish 11th in the conference.

Thanks for being here.

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