At this weekends Kendall Classic Hockey Tournament the brothers of the Kappa Sigma fraternity dedicated their time to serving up a pretty massive load of burgers and hot dogs to any fan entering at the main Northwest entrance. They had quite the nice set-up hidden under an awning to deflect the light rain. They had a couple of grills going and all the guys were busy ensuring the burdgoening throng got what they wanted.
I spoke briefly with grillmaster Brian Pavadore about the effort. He estimated that by the time they were done some 400+ burgers would have been served. An addition 250 hot dogs left in satisfied hands. There's never anything wrong with free food right?
When I meandered up between the 1st and 2nd period of the UAF/Mercyhurst game the group even had a hawker. You usually don't have to yell free food through a megaphone more than once to get most peoples attention. Standing in the bed of one of the Kendall sponsored trucks ensured this efforts success. And by success I mean much pigging out by random hockey fans.
Good on the Kappa Sigma guys for doing it. Brain told me that the Athletic Department sponsored the effort and so the efforts of Jane Pallister should be highlighted in that regard. Good on everybody for the cooperative effort. Not spending 12 bucks on a hamburger, a dog and a soda is a good thing for my all too oft empty pockets.
I'm wondering today if a statistical analysis of total shots per WCHA arena over the last 5 years would reveal any sort of significant undercounting at the Sullivan. We've had this discussion often in our section over the last few years. I've had the same discussion with more than a few fans and I wasn't the one to bring it up. Are shots undercounted at UAA home games as compared to the rest of the league?
I sure sense that they are. I believe our scorekeeper is strictly adhering to the rules regarding what is a shot and what isn't. I believe the scorekeepers at the other WCHA rinks aren't strictly adhering. I don't see any acceptable remedies to this problem. Our person is doing the job correctly and has been doing so for DECADES. We can't change anything at opposition rinks. So we have to live with it. It's unfortunate.
The argument that shots counted doesn't matter is true in a large sense. But it can have an effect on some important individual statistics. In particular, the save percentage for any goaltender playing at the Sully. A 10 percent upward change in shots per game would directly translate to the one statistic used to gauge a goalies effectiveness. It's important. 10% isn't a lot of shots. In a typical game it would mean that 55 shots were attempted rather than 50.
A goalie who gave up 2 goals on 20 shots would have a save percentage of .900. A goalie who gave up 2 goals on 23 would have a save percentage of .913. That's significant. Undercounting shots definitely doesn't impact the outcome of any game. But it could have a potential impact on the career of a goaltender. The more a goaltender plays at the Sullivan Arena the less likely he's going to be to have a stellar save percentage. The thing is (not to be longwinded), that every uncounted shot would otherwise go down as a save. I think the scorekeeper at the Sullivan is robbing goaltenders of saves.
The College Hockey News site once again appears to be offline for GCI customers. This happened last Saturday night. They got it corrected sometime Monday night IIRC. I called them last time (3 times on Monday) and was rebuffed by their 1st level support staff with the rationale that it was my problem because I was on a Mac; they even dared to ask me if I had any friends with a PC that could try. That question made me laugh ... I asked the guy to call his PC friends and check it out. He didn't seem to want to do that. Gee ...
If you can't get to the College Hockey News website then please call GCI @ (907) 265-5400 and after you've navigated their horrible robot tree ... tell them. I would assume non-GCI customers aren't having this issue. Last week's GCI trouble ticket# was 229426. Reference that number when you call them. Why am I not calling them? I'm fed up with GCI. I've had it up to here with them.
Know who this puck bunny is? It's only worth 2.5 UAA Hockey Fan Blog secret points to the first correct guesser.
I spoke briefly with grillmaster Brian Pavadore about the effort. He estimated that by the time they were done some 400+ burgers would have been served. An addition 250 hot dogs left in satisfied hands. There's never anything wrong with free food right?
When I meandered up between the 1st and 2nd period of the UAF/Mercyhurst game the group even had a hawker. You usually don't have to yell free food through a megaphone more than once to get most peoples attention. Standing in the bed of one of the Kendall sponsored trucks ensured this efforts success. And by success I mean much pigging out by random hockey fans.
Good on the Kappa Sigma guys for doing it. Brain told me that the Athletic Department sponsored the effort and so the efforts of Jane Pallister should be highlighted in that regard. Good on everybody for the cooperative effort. Not spending 12 bucks on a hamburger, a dog and a soda is a good thing for my all too oft empty pockets.
_______________
I'm wondering today if a statistical analysis of total shots per WCHA arena over the last 5 years would reveal any sort of significant undercounting at the Sullivan. We've had this discussion often in our section over the last few years. I've had the same discussion with more than a few fans and I wasn't the one to bring it up. Are shots undercounted at UAA home games as compared to the rest of the league?
I sure sense that they are. I believe our scorekeeper is strictly adhering to the rules regarding what is a shot and what isn't. I believe the scorekeepers at the other WCHA rinks aren't strictly adhering. I don't see any acceptable remedies to this problem. Our person is doing the job correctly and has been doing so for DECADES. We can't change anything at opposition rinks. So we have to live with it. It's unfortunate.
The argument that shots counted doesn't matter is true in a large sense. But it can have an effect on some important individual statistics. In particular, the save percentage for any goaltender playing at the Sully. A 10 percent upward change in shots per game would directly translate to the one statistic used to gauge a goalies effectiveness. It's important. 10% isn't a lot of shots. In a typical game it would mean that 55 shots were attempted rather than 50.
A goalie who gave up 2 goals on 20 shots would have a save percentage of .900. A goalie who gave up 2 goals on 23 would have a save percentage of .913. That's significant. Undercounting shots definitely doesn't impact the outcome of any game. But it could have a potential impact on the career of a goaltender. The more a goaltender plays at the Sullivan Arena the less likely he's going to be to have a stellar save percentage. The thing is (not to be longwinded), that every uncounted shot would otherwise go down as a save. I think the scorekeeper at the Sullivan is robbing goaltenders of saves.
_______________
The College Hockey News site once again appears to be offline for GCI customers. This happened last Saturday night. They got it corrected sometime Monday night IIRC. I called them last time (3 times on Monday) and was rebuffed by their 1st level support staff with the rationale that it was my problem because I was on a Mac; they even dared to ask me if I had any friends with a PC that could try. That question made me laugh ... I asked the guy to call his PC friends and check it out. He didn't seem to want to do that. Gee ...
If you can't get to the College Hockey News website then please call GCI @ (907) 265-5400 and after you've navigated their horrible robot tree ... tell them. I would assume non-GCI customers aren't having this issue. Last week's GCI trouble ticket# was 229426. Reference that number when you call them. Why am I not calling them? I'm fed up with GCI. I've had it up to here with them.
_______________
Know who this puck bunny is? It's only worth 2.5 UAA Hockey Fan Blog secret points to the first correct guesser.
20 comments:
Just an anecdote on the shot count thing. I watched a couple of times Saturday when dumps on goal were made and they were always registered on the scoreboard. One in particular seemed to test the boundary of what I understand to be the shot/no shot gray area. It was by Michigan from along the boards in front of UAA’s penalty box, 15 to 20 feet outside the blue line and was followed by the shooter heading off on a line change. The shot was not the absolutely hardest one I’ve ever seen, but was hit cleanly and had good pace. I thought the intent of the play was garnering an additional second to facilitate a line change or get a face-off in the Anchorage zone. The puck was caught then deliberately dropped to a UAA teammate. It went up on the board as a shot.
The shot count is absolutely ridicoulous at the Sully for both Teams. Velocity is not a determining factor for a shot. they mis at least 10 to 15 percent of the shots compared to other WCHA Arenas..Its very controversial right now and I am sure being looked at. That being said Michigan got a fluke goal off a bouncing puck and they got there confidence. Shiak called it in the papers. The first goal was huge. Its over now we go to fairbanks and bag that tourney for the second year in a row.
Donald..What were are Goalies Sv pct Home vs Away last year..?? Have you looked at alltime Goalie Save pcts at UAA. 1 guy over 900 for his Career.. Lawson 906??? Everyone else the last 20 years is under 900. It just needs to be right. We should be like our peers and at least give the benifit of the doubt to these athletes and teams especially on OUR HOME ICE.
The girl is Wayne Gretzky's wife Janet. Right?
I was at all 4 games this weekend, and thought several times that the shot counts seemed low. Granted, from the stands it can sometimes be a bit hard to tell what is and isn't a real SOG, but still.
Then again, I sometimes wonder about other places having inflated shot counts. I know I've seen more than a couple goalies make a glove "save" on a shot that wasn't even on goal - would've sailed harmlessly behind the net, and yet they get credit for a save.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I've always thought that a shot on goal is anytime the puck is directed towards the net in such a way that the puck is going to go into the net, unless the goalie makes a save. That would go both ways, if the goalie freezes it but it's not actually headed for the net, it's not a SOG or a save, but if he stops it on a random dump-in that happens to be on net, it's a SOG and a save, regardless of how fast or if it was intended as a shot.
Case in point, I saw UNO score a goal on UAF last season where the UNO player dumped it from just past the center line and went for a line change, but Johnson lost it in the stands, and it went in. It wasn't intended to be a shot, but it was on goal, and the goalie didn't stop it, so it counted.
It is indeed "The Great One's" better half.
2.5 UAA Hockey Fan Blog points are awarded to Anonymous ...
Certain other rinks not only count shots that UAA's scorekeeper wouldn't, they're also known to add assists that didn't happen.
Oops ... And no, I haven't figured sv% at home versus away. Such a number wouldn't prove anything since the variable of performance can't be equalized.
A count of total shots in each of the rinks would be the only number that might be revealing. And no ... I'm not going to compile that info.
Other teams add assists to there players all the time. Just look at und and minnesota stats.
This has gone on since the dawn of time.
Let's just keep filling the sully and promoting the best group of players we have had in a long time.
Couple more weeks till we see hunt and backstrom.
Let's just win the fairbanks tournament and sweep und.
Donald,
On the GCI note, I'm on a Mac, using GCI from Fairbanks and haven't had any issues getting on CHN, or any site for that matter. Maybe GCI just hates the Seawolves as much as we do?! I kid, I kid, but if you threaten them to disconnect your service, and say, god forbid, go with ACS. Trust me, they will fix the problem and give you a nice hefty credit.
Cheers.
Who is in fault for this loss? WHOEVER schedules the Kendall Classic......no seriously. UAF comes out and spanks the better team, and we squeeze by the lesser team on Fri. Then Sat, we get spanked by the pissed off better team, and UAF spanks the depresssssed, shaky, scared team. Whoever schedules the Kendall, needs to flip there logic, and give UAA the better team in the late game Fri. night.(which I think is awesome that we still got the tradition of the 8 pm game. I was looking foward to going to the Mich game, after my SAT, but I was just too tired to go, now I'm glad I didn't go.(waking up at 6:45 on a saturday should be against the law) Better this kind of effort and game happen in the beg., of the season so the FRE, will learn to always come out hard, finish your checks/assingments. The shot comments are well deserved, a very intresting point.
And....um, I'm probably gonna get shot down on this, but somebody said that fan, we want your comments/posts.......um who were you talking about?
Good learning experince weekend for the start of the year.
Nick Haddad centering the ?top? line was suprising but after seeing what he did FRI night, he did very well.
What does everybody think of the lines?
we all know who schedules the kendall, our dumbass athletic director who needs to be canned (been saying that for 5 years now)
You select an opponent in your own tournament based on which team would draw fans better on a Saturday night.
Saturday nights typically draw more fans. Put the "premier" opponent against your team on Saturday. That's the conventional wisdom and generally it is sound logic.
It is only AFTER THE FACT that UA_ pulled a win out of their ass does the issue even come up. UAA lost on Saturday for two reasons, they played less well than they are capable of playing and Michigan played well.
UAA didn't lose because UA_ won the night before. And you certainly wouldn't want to schedule opponents based on the remote possibility that your arch-rival "might" win.d
There's nothing wrong with the way the tourney is scheduled. Like I said, it's only an issue this year because of the results. Had UAA won a hard fought battle in OT would anyone complain that we should have played them on Friday night? No.
It's a "monday morning quarterback" issue entirely.
Donald, in a tournament, shouldn't the winners play each other to determine the champion?
Just asking...
When the game is properly officiated very little is said about the Officials. Unfortunately thats the sad part. Do a good job officiating and nothing is said. I think the same can be said for the off ice officials. When you have numerous and multiple comments in the blogs and it is noticible to the casual fan there is a problem.
UAA's tournaments have used both fixed-formats and true tournament formats in the past. The reason now for the fixed format is to attract opponents for the tournament.
Exempt games are granted ONLY to teams that play against an Alaska based team on a rink in Alaska. The fixed format guarantees two exemptions for attending schools. Both the UAA and UA_ tourney use the fixed format for this reason.
I thought the officials blew several calls in the Friday UAA game, and in the Sat UA_ game. Namely that 5 minute major on Mercyhurst for boarding that gave the Nanooks 2 goals. That was a terrible call.
Just for the record since they're leaving the names of the Zebra's backs:
All four referees this weekend were from the WCHA.
Adams/Campion reffed UAA/Mercyhurst
Hunt/Sheperd reffed UAA/Michigan
A Seawolves Fanatic-
I made the reference to Fan because after the Oct 4 Potpourri was up, "Anonymous Fan" wrote a remark (Oct 10 @ 8:27 am) which Donald didn't take too kindly. He responded, a few others put in their comments and then Donald apologized to Fan.....heck, you can check it out yourself. Fan has been a loyal supporter and since that time has not been making regular comments so that's what I was referring to. BUT, I do see that Anonymous Fan did come out of hiding on Oct 11 @ 5:57 so all is good in blog land once again.
Donald thanks for clearing up the tourney format
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