Mike Machnik writes:
> Anyway, like I have said, Heather and I split doing the chart at
> Merrimack, and I have done it at Northeastern and Merrimack for about
> 7 years now.  My rule is, would it have gone in if the goalie did not
> make the save?  1 inch wide is wide, to me.  But it's not possible to
> see all angles, so sometimes you have to make a guess.  Remember that
> for a particular shot, you may have a better view than the person
> recording the SOGs.
 
This is the rule of thumb I've used whenever I've had to keep track of
SOG.  This includes not counting it a SOG when the shot is stopped by
the goalie but IMHO it would have gone wide.  If it's too close to
call, I'll count it as a SOG.  Also, there's a chance I might miss a
shot if I'm busy marking something down, especially if I'm working alone.
 
> Another comes when the goalie is out of the net and a defenseman
> blocks a shot.  Is that a SOG; does the defenseman get a save?  I say
> no in both cases.  No one other than the goalie gets saves.  And, the
> defenseman gets a blocked shot.  Thus, it's not a shot on goal.
 
Exactly.  If the goalie doesn't make the save and the puck does not go
into the goal, then it is not a SOG.
 
Recently, I've only been recording stats for the adult league I play
in.  This league only pays one person to record everything: SOG,
scoring, penalties.  That same person is also responsible for running
the game clock and ensuring players don't leave the penalty box early.
The possiblity for errors in recording the shots is not insignificant,
but the only people who really care about the stats are some of the
players.  Although I've had many goalies come up to me between periods
or after the game and ask how many shots they stopped.
 
Mike writes about the good press TCHCR gets:
> Nice to see the good ink...and interesting to see Umile repeat what we
> already know about the polls. :-)  I'd just add that to be fair, TCHCR
> or any other computer rating is not necessarily "obviously" better...you
> have to agree with the method used, before you can agree with the
> rating, IMO.  And that method can be highly subjective - developers of
> ratings often have their own agendas.
 
I wonder if Umile would still think that TCHCR is better than the
polls if his team was ranking lower by the computer ranking.  Just a thought.
 
Pete Kester
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