I'm not big on advanced stats in hockey. It's not because I don't think they're valuable, but because it's tough to translate the concepts to what I'm seeing on the ice. It's my own ignorance, yes, but for a new generation of hockey metrics to take hold, they'll have to be more relatable to the average fan. Like this one, which could not be simpler: the number of sex offenders near the arena has turned out to be an excellent indicator of team success.


The brainchild of Megalodon at Battle of California, I give you SONA. ("Sex offenders near arena." See? Intuitive is good!) By combing a national sex offender database, he put together a count of registered sex offenders living within 1.5 miles of every American NHL arena. That was in December. Revisiting it now, with less than a month to go in the regular season, the results are stunning: of the six teams surrounded by the most rapists and perverts, five are in the top six in the NHL points race.

There's a lesson here, and it's that correlation does not equal causation, not that kiddy diddlers will have more of an impact than Alexander Radulov on the Preds' Stanley Cup chances. And also: what the hell is going on in Nashville and St. Louis?


Sharks Gameday: Staccuracy [Battle of California]