The NHL is holding its annual player tour, in which it drags many of its top stars to New York for days of interviews and appearances. ESPN's Craig Custance took advantage of the opportunity (Insider link) to ask players what they thought of their own unconventional analytics, aka fancystats.


Most had at least heard of corsi, and nearly as many were able to vaguely define it. (It's essentially plus/minus for shots taken and conceded while a player is on the ice.) But P.K. Subban was among the younger players who had an incredibly strong grasp of a newish stat that's become fundamental in certain circles.

When shown his numbers, Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban quickly revealed one of the flaws in examining Corsi by itself. He wanted zone starts to be factored in, pointing out that he starts many of his shifts in the defensive zone. A few clicks later, now over to behindthenet.ca, he was shown that his offensive zone start percentage was at just 47.1 percent. "See?" Subban said. "I told you."

P.K. Subban just issued a more devastating criticism of corsi than Steve Simmons has been able to muster in everything he's written over the last two years.


[ESPN]