Anders Lee forgets exactly what the class was called. Some sort of business management statistics class at Notre Dame. But the Islanders forward definitely remembers one of the projects.



The class tried to use statistics to determine the optimal time during a game to pull the goalie and the results were aggressive. Certainly much more aggressive than the current hockey standard, where coaches typically wait until around the 90-second mark to add the extra attacker.



Lee remembers sitting in the class with a couple of his hockey-playing teammates and shaking his head when the conclusion suggested that coaches should start thinking about pulling their goalie with at least three minutes remaining in the game. In his mind, this was an exercise destined to stay in the spreadsheets.



So when this topic came up again a couple weeks ago, Lee was ready for it. This summer, on his excellent podcast “Revisionist History,” Malcolm Gladwell shared the work...