Endings - Wheelers and Pre-Season

The winter inline season and my Pre (ice hockey) season ended within a few days of each other.  The summer inline season starts with training on the 7th of October and the first game on the 10th.  That's all within sixteen days.  Events have already got away from me as I post this (2 unblogged Knights games) so the reader will have to forgive me if this review of what has been is not as in-depth a post as it ideally should be.

Endings I - Wheelers Winter Season

We lost in the Grand Final against our Divisional foes, the Bumpers.  This was not only the end of the season but also the end of the current team formations.  This is because this Summer we are being encouraged to form our own teams, choose our own names, select our own jerseys (more on that later).  The organisers are of the belief that the Division has matured enough to allow for self formed teams (rather than centralised drafting for need).  As such, it seems appropriate to look back.

In the season just passed we fielded six skaters more often than not.  This was a major change from the past.  Our lines stabilised by the playoffs, albeit not entirely due on rink performance (a consequence of having two family groups, each with their own internal issues to juggle).  In this regard, the stats of Josh and Crystal look very good offensively but that was to at least some extent a result of putting our best defence with them (Merrilyn).  In goal, after a bit of chaos initially we settled in with Nicole between the pipes.  I think she was finding her game by season end.

In the longer term, I have played 48 games with the Wheelers across four seasons during which I went to four grand finals, won gold once and received an MVP.  My regular season stats have steadily improved over time but my post season stats remain woeful.

                                                               Regular Season          Post Season
                                                               GP   G   A  Pt     PPG
13/14 Summer C Grade    Wheelers     5     3   1   4      0.8     (3/1/0/1 0.33)   Silver
14      Winter        DivII        Wheelers   10    8   7   15    1.5      (2/0/0/0  0.00)  Gold MVP
14/15 Summer     Div II       Wheelers   12   12   8  20    1.67    (2/1/0/1  0.50)   Silver
15      Winter        Div II       Wheelers   12   11  14 25    2.08    (2/0/1/1  0.50)   Silver

Endings II - Ice Hockey Pre-Season

After a false start I began an off-season strength and conditioning program on July 1st.  I kept to my schedule pretty well for the first month, and then maintained an acceptable level of commitment through to the start of the season.  I had noticeable gains in leg, core and upper body strength, aerobic capacity and anaerobic performance, quickness and agility.  As the program wore through its second and into the third month I derived a great deal of satisfaction from my commitment itself, the activities themselves and the almost daily challenges such a program poses.

At the end of eleven weeks I was regularly going for a run, interval training, using a HR monitor (thanks Jess for the loan!) and pushing weights (again, thanks Jess!).  To a limited extent I'll be bringing all of these activities forward into the season proper, for both their game specific values AND the intrinsic pleasure I derive from them in themselves.  Who would have guessed it?

As to the value of the program, it was well worth it!  I had a small amount of weight gain (a primary goal of mine for years) and increased performance on many health related indicators.  Perhaps more importantly, the value has already shown itself in my inline games and the first two games of the ice hockey season.  They show themselves particularly in the following ways...

Increased ability to skate a shift and a game out
Better decision making through a game (due being less fatigued)
Decreased recovery time between both shifts and games
Greater strength along the board and in the crease
Quicker and faster
Increased confidence.
Greater knowledge about my own and other's bodies and physical capacity

All in all, a great advance in both my hockey and life potential.

McCrae-Williamson Jamboree

We're just closing out a Queen's Birthday long weekend as I write this.  Last year we went to Melbourne to watch the Canadians and Americans play at Rod Laver Arena.  This year, an ice hockey jamboree at the Ice Arena.

Kids came from all over Australia, around a hundred between 6 and 12.  All the local members of the Ice Hockey Family kicked in to help it happen, so there was no direct cost for the kids to participate.  They had to be registered hockey players, so they all knew how to skate, and all the rest was built up with good will and organisation.

They had to register by 8am on Friday morning.  Then they each had 2 x one and a half hour sessions on the ice, another on Saturday, two on Sunday, and three more hours today.  That's a lot of ice time!  Except for today's sessions, they were all built around a simple format of three 'stations' going at all times (the two halves of the big ice plus the small ice) with the kids divided into permanent groups for the weekend rotating through them all twice in a session, each station offering a different series of drills each time.  In addition to this basic format, the large ice stations built their drills around varieties of battle drills, with shifts of 3, 4 or 5 players per team.  The small ice was more 'light hearted', concentrating on skating games.

On Sunday afternoon there was a barbeque in a nearby park, showcasing one of Adelaide's design features (a belt of parklands around the CBD).  Lovely food and a lot of kids having fun with the locals.  A couple hours went by quickly before the Sunday arvo/evening sessions commenced back at the Ice Arena.

By the time the kids got to Monday they'd had up to seven hours of concentrated training over the previous three days.  They put it all together in a 'tournament' whereby the groups that had got to play together all weekend got to play in (unscored) games against their peers' teams in a round robin style tournament.  This was great to watch, the improvement in playing style, ability and skill amongst the whole group had raised, as had the level of intensity and mindfulness in the players.  Great to watch!

I didn't stay around but apparently there was a closing ceremony where every kid got a medallion and puck (they'd gotten a cool cap at the opening), and one award was given out for the most determined/improved player of the weekend, which went to a young fellow named Josh who suffers (?) dwarfism but didn't let that stop him being a very effective defenceman.  I know I was impressed with his play as well as his tenacity over the weekend and it was nice to know he was rewarded for it.

I was pretty buggered by the end of the weekend, and I just watched!  I reckon there'll be a few tired bodies being dragged to school tomorrow!

Seasonal Thoughts

The Knights' summer season ended tonight with a 5-1 victory against the Sharks.  I will write the traditional Game Day post in a day or two when I have more time.  Suffice to say that we had twelve skaters show up, ran three lines and three D, I played D all game, it felt nice to win again.  Our game was good, a real team-ness happening with lots of talking, support and crisp passes.  Being the last game of the season it was also very exhausting.  Exhausting and exhilerating.

That sort of stands for the experience of the whole season, exhausting but exhilerating.  At a personal level, the pre-season was my first ever taste of serious preparation (strength, agility, quickness, conditioning).  The results were evident in the first period of the first game.  And then, a PCL injury with only minutes to go, which kept me off skates for a week and set my physique back to pre-pre-season levels.  I limped into the Christmas break, quite literally.

Through the silly season, went for a week without skating, the longest break I've had since September 2013.  The knee was coming good in itself, full motion and mobility and no discomfort, and I had a new set of skates (Bauer 160s).  I was still breaking in the skates when the season got underway in January.  I celebrated by getting a new Easton stick to mark the occasion.

The back end of the season has been very enjoyable.  The team seems to have morphed into something far more organic than it has been since I joined.  We have stuck it out, returned when it would have been easier not to, changed our lives to get as many games in as we could.  Most of the time it meant that we could run nine or ten skaters, which is tough minutes for all.  Tonight we ran twelve, and showed what we are capable of.

And now we say good bye to at least two Knights.  Christian has been drafted by the Blackhawks and Lachy 'traded' to the Kings.  I have a horrible feeling we might lose one or two to Division One.  Which means we need to get some more guys (or gals) in.

Joy.

It's been a great year.  On to the next!
 

The quest of the Spengler Cup, and a nice surprise!

Unsurprisingly, ice hockey goes into a xmas recess.  The higher the standard being played, the shorter the break, but it seems that even the NHL enjoys a few days off.  Which is a bugger for those of us who finally get a bit of free time over the xmas holiday from the daily grind - no ice arena to skate on, no team to train with, no games to get psyched up over, and now no televised games from the Northern Hemisphere.

Hence the importance of the Spengler Cup - a short form tournament from the Swiss town of Davos that takes place over the break.  Last year we discovered it by accident on Foxtel.  I'd been looking forward to a few days of late nights watching the teams from Switzerland, Russia, Serbia and the Czech Republic fight it out.  Unfortunately, this year Foxtel isn't showing it.

Not to be deterred I went online to see what I could find in terms of results, gossip or even match replays or highlights.  I found something better...

Online TV!  In particular, this site, with its streaming content of all types of sports from all over the world.  Go to the Sports Tab, click on Ice Hockey, see what your next viewing opportunity will be.  Only, read the warnings first, because there's some nasty little bugs in some of the software needed to open some of the content!  So far, I have watched parts of games from Switzerland, Russia, England, Canada and Finland.

Afterthought - when I told Wayne about this treasure trove of tv he rightly asked the question, isn't this 'piracy' and isn't it 'wrong' to watch it?  I've thought about it a fair bit since then, and decided that my conscience is clean.  My logic is simple, if the games were on regular or pay TV (ala AIHL), I'd watch them there (like I do for AIHL).  If the games were available on a pay site for streaming (ala NHL) I'd pay and watch them there (like I do for NHL).  But they're not, so I can't.

So sue me.

Game Day - USA (7) d Canada (4)

Warning: this is a bloody long post!

You will recall that Nancy, B and myself went to Melbourne for the weekend.  The centrepiece of our trip was seeing the Douglas Weber International Ice Hockey game at the Rod Laver Arena on Friday Night between Canada and the USA.  With representative teams mainly drawn from AHL, CHL, WHL, etc, and a smattering of NHL players in their offseason (and an Italia Liga member also), the game was probably technically an 'exhibition game'.  It was the fourth match in a series of five games, played in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth (two games).

Last year, Nancy and I had been to the Melbourne game and had seats right up the back.  We had still thoroughly enjoyed the game, sufficiently so that we returned in 2014.  Last time we'd come with my Sister and Brother in Law.  This year we came with one of our grandsons, B.  It was his tenth birthday on the Sunday, so it formed part of what will hopefully have been a memorable weekend.  This year, we had seats in the front row, to the left of the Canadian bench, roughly at the point where the boards start their curve around the end.  Prime seats indeed!

Being winter, the roof was closed over the arena.  The promoter billed it as being 20,000 people, but that's a bit more than the Arena actually holds.  More like 15,000.  Still, it was packed to the rafters.  That's a lot of people to have in a room!

The video below catches something of the exhuberance of our evening.  We had a great night!  The video shows no actual hockey footage.  Not for copyright reasons (though using it here for private useage would be okay), but because we were too busy watching the game.  And making sure a stray puck didn't come over and hit us (there was no net or barrier above the boards between most of the audience and the ice).  I think about four pucks went over the barrier in the evening.  As you'll see in the video, B got one!  And a player's sweater!  What more could an almost ten year old boy who's about to start ice hockey classes the following week want to see out single figures!

In rough order of progression through the video, you will notice the following:

I was very excited to be going.  I was decked out in my Canadian gear and, as we caught the absolutely jam packed tram a few stops to the sporting complex (next stop, the MCG), I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few others similarly dressed.  We were outnumbered by the casuals and the NHL jersey wearers, but it was still a buzz to this little half Canadian.  The first thing we did when we got in was get B a Hockey Team Canada tee shirt and me a flag and program.

Now we were ready to find our seats.  As mentioned previously, we were front row.  You can see them in the second still in the video.  They were expensive, but not inordinately more to the seats in the back row.  It's a pretty special event to us, so the difference was worth it.  As you'll know if you've ever done it, the closer you are to the ice the more intense the experience.  And so it was.

There followed a bit of pregame pyrotechnics with some cool figure skating to accompany it, followed by the introduction to the members of each team.  You can hear the politically incisive social commentary of a typical 'middle-australia' crowd as the two teams emerged.  I myself recognised a few players from each team, generally their NHLers but also several from the WHL.  It was pretty cool to see them emerge.  I was, however, a bit disappointed to not be seeing Nathan Walker out there (he'd been well-billed as the (so called) first Aussie raised youngster to be drafted into the NHL).  Never the less, excitement was mounting.

Then followed the national anthems, Star Spangled Banner first, Oh Canada followed.  I've always thought the Stars and Stripes to be a stirring anthem (I think most people do).  Canada's is also pretty strong (though a bit dull the first time or two you listen to it, perhaps), and I was even able to recall most of the words and sing along (unfortunately you can (just) hear me on the video).  Loved it.  Imagine this, though:

Then, while the teams returned to a fairly complex warm up drill (involving three per side horseshoe with some reasonably complex drill in the middle) the MC conducted an interview with Australia's current favourite hockey son - Nathan Walker.  He was dressed in coat and tie.  In a way, it was kinda saddening because it only reminded me how I'd been very looking forward to seeing him play.  It was also distracting because I wanted to hear what was said above the hubbub of the crowd as the teams got into high gear.  It was also probably a bit distracting to Walker to be so apparently ignored.  But I and many others gave him a big cheer as he was leaving the press box.  We, not being far from the tunnel down which he disappeared, got to wave him off.  I stuck my thumb in the air when for a moment our eyes met.  I wanted to pass him all my good wishes in that moment.  It was pretty damn cool for me to see him raise his thumb at me in return with a big grin on his face.  As time sped up back to normal I even turned around to Nancy and said that he'd seen us!  I've never before been so outwardly starstruck, though the experience was actually something quite different.  And it was nice to see that Nancy had caught the exact moment on a blurry shot from her phone.  How cool is that!

Almost as he left the Arena, the game began.

The first period was a tough one, I suspect several of the players were 'finding their legs' to at least some degree.  It wasn't long, however, and we'd been treated to a couple Canadian goals.  And a scuffle that turned into a fight with matching five minute majors the result.  And an American come back goal.  We were all buzzing with the energy of the spectacle before us when the siren sounded.  B had offered some people in the row behind some of the sweets he'd brought in.  In turn, one was kind enough to take a few pictures of him.  All of a sudden, we and those around were forming a community of a kind.  2-1 Canada at the end of the first.

Durning the first intermission I bumped into Rebecca and Paul from the Vikings.  A little weird to see them in their finery rather than hot and sweaty in their sweaters.  Very very nice to see such faces!  There were more around, apparently, and I know a few C graders who'd gone, but these were the only faces I knew that I met.

The second period was fast and dramatic, Canada scoring once and the USA twice to tie the score at 3-3 at the start of the second intermission. The teams seemed reasonably well matched.  The individual players were becoming more evident to us through their skating and playing styles, as well as their temperments.  B had decided he liked what he saw in #91 for Canada, David Rutherford.  I was pretty impressed by his skating style (especially later when he seemed to be pushing off from both toes in a high speed heel to heel - how does one do that?! Nancy likened his skating to 'dancing over the ice'.).  Etem had silky stick skills.  The other memorable player for me was the American captain, Kopotka (#28).  You could tell by the boo's he got that he had struck a chord with his relentless, tireless, aggressively harrassing play.  I was pretty impressed by his level of 'compete'.

We decided not to rush out for the second intermission, but remained in our seats and just enjoyed the atmosphere for a while before wandering out to get some fresh air.  While we were so seated one of the rink officials wandered by beneath our seat, suddenly reached up and offered B the game puck from the second period.  Chipped and all!  He was pretty rapt!  Not long afterwards (on our walk for some fresh air) he got a moment with the Melbourne Mustang's mascot and Nancy got another classic photo.  A game puck from an international game, no wonder B looks like he does as he was accosted by the horse!

While outside we got talking to a young fella (twenties) from Melbourne who was really nice.  He and his mate were up the back back row.  We knew that the woman who'd taken B's photo and her fella were not returning for the third period.  We told this nice guy where we were and invited him and his mate to the otherwise empty seats.  They were there for puck drop - it was like santa had become real in July to them.  It was really nice to help co-ordinate with the universe in providing so much pleasure to a couple former hockey players.

The third period was a bit depressing, as a half Canadian.  The yanks put on another three quick goals at one point, the first resulting from a monumental goalie/defence passing stuff up in Canada's half.  That was pretty gutting.  I think they were in shock for long enough for the next goal to be scored (also a bit soft, though can't remember the detail).  The goalie, though, started making some brilliant saves as the blizzard continued.  It seemed that Kopotka and his cronies could dominate the slot in the Canadian zone at will.  Conversely, the Canadians barely got the puck in front of the American goal, let alone a shot onto it for the whole quarter.  They did however score a quick breakaway goal against the run of play with about three minutes to go.  Hope rose.  Only to be crushed shortly after by another American goal.  And another.  Final score, 7-4.

I was satisfied that if the game had been rigged (being an exhibition game, and so as to make the climactic game a 'live' one in Nathan Walker's home town of Sydney, one couldn't blame them if it was), it wasn't through giving teams 'orders'.  I was too close to the players to not see the will to win, the warlike approach to competition, the grief of the goalie if they were scored against.  If the game was 'rigged', it would have been by co-ordinating the lines between the teams.  Surprisingly, it didn't matter.  It was a great game.  And the crowd loved it.

Before lining up for aftergame photos and presentations of sweaters etc, the players had one last scuffle.  I think only the first had been of a majorly serious level, but there had been no lack of aggression in the game (nor the resulting penalties).  The crowd was a bit bemused, but entertained at this swansong mano a mano.

The aftergame rituals were new to us, we don't usually hang around.  However, having front row seats, we did this time.  After the teams had presented themselves for photos and applauded what was left of the crowd, they again lined up in the centre.  Then, spectators who'd paid big dollars for various of the player's game jerseys got to come out and meet 'their' players and receive their jerseys.  A few of the players were signing signatures by going to the barriers for the fans to hand down whatever was to be signed.  B, of course, being a kid, 'had' to do that - 'because you have to if you're a kid!'

A player by the name of Harvey had been pretty popular in our corner.  Pretty feisty bugga.  B had him about to sign his tee shirt when Harvey decided he'd get a texta from thirty metres away.  And then he had to work his way down again toward B, signing as he went.  By this time the organisers were trying to close it all down, started to shepherd him towards the tunnel exit.  Harvey (bless him) shrugged the official off with a barely disguised snarl, pointed to B and said he'd made a promise, continued signing things before eventually getting to B and signing his tee shirt.  B was pretty chuffed.  Sweet, I thought.

Things got better, however, when Rutherford (aforementioned #91) came over, also signed B's tee shirt.  This was extra cool because he had been B's favourite player almost from the start.  B had been cheering him by name throughout (although it was only in the final period that he had noticed us specifically, looking up at B's call of "Rutherford, you're awesome!" and returning a look of identification to the subsequent raised thumb from the corner).  B was by this time approaching ecstasy as he held up his tee shirt.

But Rutherford didn't immediately leave.  Instead, he looked at B and said, 'do you want my sweater?'  In response to B's puzzled look, he continued, "here, I'll give it to you," and proceeded to take it off and hand it up (signing it as he did so), "just don't tell anyone."  The look of B as he turned around to the crowd was priceless.  The cheers they awarded him equally so.  It's moments like these of which hockey is made.

It wasn't much later and we were out of there.  A nice walk along the Yarra into town, with a bit of a moment half way to check out the photos and videos that had been taken.  Then, an impulse ride on horse and carriage through the parklands at midnight for a bit of a magical wind down from a magical evening.

Three times that night I had to explain to some poor non hockey goer in the city why there were thousands of people wearing Canada gear.  "There was an Ice Hockey game," I'd say by way of explanation.  They invariably nodded their heads sagely,  only demonstrating the link between Canada and hockey - even in Australia.  It is kinda appropriate that this unofficial 'Canada Night in Melbourne' is inextricably linked with a hockey game!

Exhausted, we finally got back to our apartment.  The next day, the sweaty sweater and the chipped puck were proof it had not been a dream.

Most excellent.  Hope to do it all again some time!

*

Off ice, last night (Wednesday) I did an upper body circuit.  Had been shown earlier in the day a couple new variations on various exercises I've been doing by a friend with a lot of experience.  Started evolving the workout to build in what he'd suggested.

Today, I think I could feel that oh so slight and non painful tightness in the shoulders, upper back and arms that maybe is coming from muscle growth.  If so, amazing!  This is only my third week, afterall.

I made today a rest day.  Tomorrow, core and lower body.

Stanley Cup - Kings win, how did I go?

I watched the final game of the Stanley Cup final series between New York Rangers and the LA Kings this morning with Ashton and Nancy.  We didn't watch the whole thing as it does go for a long time (especially when it goes into a second overtime period) but we did get to see Dustin Brown raise the Cup for the second time in three years.  Goes to show how hockey has progressed in California, and how it has infiltrated this household.

The Kings got there by playing the maximum twenty one games in the first three series (against San Jose, Anaheim and Chicago), notably coming back from 3 games down in the first against the sharks.  Jonathan Quick, although a little inconsistent, came through on all the big games.

My own view on the Kings has shifted over the past years.  In 2012 they struck me as a fairly dull team that relied over much on a brilliant young goal tender and ground their opponents down to win their games in an unexciting way.  That view didn't change much through the shortened lock out season, and even the start of the season just finished.  However, they evolved (or perhaps, showed their evolution more obviously) as the season unfurled itself and they began to display that there was more to them than the defensive brand that their scorelines tended to show (high possession, low scoring).  Now, I'd say they're quite entertaining to watch, play a hard but skilled game, and aren't afraid to push both axes as far as they can.  Without the ill-faith that goes with Boston...

How did my picks go from before the first round?  I didn't pick ANY of the Western Conference first round winners and so couldn't pick the cup winner at all.  In the East, I did ping the Canadiens and the Rangers to go far, but only mentioned the Rangers as my favourite to win the conference.  So I'll take that as a contested pass.  If I'd known it would be Rangers v Kings in the finals, I would have picked Kings on form as I interpreted it at the time.

Enough of me, however.  Well done LA Kings!

Three E's - No Parades No Funerals

Effort, Execution, Emotion.  The Big E's in any game, but particularly those in which the Expectations are high.  For example, finals.  Other examples; I've played two 'first games' (ie in ice and inline hockey), a 'must win' regular season ice game, elimination, semi and grand finals in inline.  All of these games had a high level of potential angst associated with them. 

And yet, it wasn't any of these landmark games that created the most anxiety in me.  No, that honour goes to another game on the ice, one which I can't even place in terms of against which opponent, at least partly due the mental fade out which I suffered as a result of failing the three E's game.  My second game, the only game I've played where I came away unhappy.

My first game had gone off okay as first games go, me not having a clue about what to do and just being totally bombarded with sensory impacts and a rising tide of decisions.  Resultant effect, I kept falling down (and getting up again).  Luckily, me and my team, coach, audience (missus) were all expecting nothing less, so it was all good fun.  The pre-game nerves were a part of the whole thing, of the quality of a fool jumping off a cliff.  All good, in other words.

My second game, however, was presaged with a week of mentally rehearsing the simple positional instructions I had decided I needed to learn if I was to contribute in any meaningful way to my team, every day and at every opportunity I had (eg. quiet time in the morning, walking to the bus stop, bus trip, idle minutes at work, lunch 'hour', in the evening).

So, although the basic positional requirements were well and truly implanted by the time I got to the game, I was a nervous wreck.  I think this goes a lot with the fact that there were Expectations associated with the visualisations I had immersed myself at an existential level.  These were not just idle thoughts or dreams, but a plan and a blueprint and an instruction and a program.  Which of course led to the anxiety when the ideal world considered the fact that I still didn't really have a clue what I was doing out there.

So, by the time I got to the ice, my brain was tired and my nerves were too busy getting over their stress to do what you need them to do in a game.  Which led to reduced execution of the basics.  Which started to have its own impact on both emotion (disappointment as I became further and further incapable of achieving what was so clear in my mind) as well as effort (ended up being the game with least ice time all season).  Big lesson.

No Funerals, No Parades.

Inspired by Kim McCullough at Let's Play Hockey.

Off Season?

When I was in Canada this time of year two years ago, many of their ice rinks were already drained of ice and in use for other purposes (eg 'box' lacrosse).  It seems that sports fans change gear if their teams don't make the playoffs, and that players change to another sport (golf, anyone?).  The hockey calendar seems to be based around the annual progression of season and off season.  Much the same as footy over here.

But, as the NHL regular season (and it seems every other northern hemisphere league) ends, ours begins.  The local leagues kicked off a week and a half ago.  The Australian National Ice Hockey League has just started (weekly one hour broadcast on featured game on foxtel).  Of interest, Vikings winter season teams are being announced next week (registration the following week).

Admittedly, most of the above aussie ice hockey league levels stop for half the year (the 'off season'), but inline rolls on, and C grade and the Adrenaline women.  We're the lucky ones where, if fortunate, we also manage to qualify for a summer team and get to play for at least eighteen months straight.

But only if we can qualify.  Hence, treating this period as a personal 'off season' in regards to training etc.while all the hockey goes on around.

Analytics - What makes a great player?

While surfing the outer region of the Habs' hockeysphere, in a 'fanpost' seeking to crowdsource raw passing data from NHL games for an amateur advanced statistics project, I came across references to the book/concept of 'Soccernomics'. Which in turn led me into the region of soccermetrics. Which still seemed a little amateur.

So, knowing that the Moneyball Concept seems to be most developed in American sport, I drifted to the NFLsphere and discovered a nascent, monetised version of advanced analytic concepts at work in relation to american football, and signs of the self reflexive awareness of this intellectual movement - where it ties in to the growing movement of industrial level analytics in the 'real world' in general.

Of course, the academic psychologists would have had to have been amongst the first on the field, and it is just like them and their sense of humour to have used basketball as the subject of their seminal study applying the science to the art of the sport. Needless to say, and staying within the psychological zone, their sub-industry has grown in a fractal bloom (eg this meta-analysis of the field of perception/expertise). Which is getting ultimately to the core questions, what makes a great player?

Moving back into the world of the hockeysphere, I passed through the more analytic oriented form of "sabermetric" moneyball logic in its native sport of baseball,before ultimately returning to one of my favorite hockey analytics sites for a good read.