Jacob Bestebroer writes a bi-weekly column in the Chilliwack Progress during the BCHL hockey season.
I like stats.
Or to sound more current, I like analytics.
All sports at all levels have taken analyzing stats to a new level over the last few years. You can argue the merit of some stats but interpreted correctly you can use them to learn more about any athlete or team.
Again, analyzing them properly is the key and good coaches can do just that.
Looking at stats without seeing the actual game may never give you the true story though.
For example the National Hockey League tracks hits by each player and it pains me to hear hockey analysts think they can judge a player’s performance by reciting how many hits he had during a period or game.
It happens all the time.
Listen to an intermission of an NHL game and you’ll hear something like ‘Player X had a great period with five hits.’
Really?
He might have, but looking at the number on a computer is not going to tell you the full story.
If the player got himself out of position to make these hits and it cost a scoring chance or a goal against then I’d argue the player did not have that great a period. It’s all in the interpretation and that’s where the coaches and their staff come in. Interpreted properly, any stat can be helpful.
The BCHL does not track all the stats that the NHL does and they never will. They track the basic stats and that’s pretty much it. It’s up to each team to track additional stats like faceoffs won, where each shot on goal is taken from and time of possesion.
All these stats, looked at properly, can help a team improve.
I’m not entirely sure why the BCHL doesn’t track these stats and make them available to fans in the game’s box scores on their website. The computer program they use now is set up to do just that.
It’s just not being used.
Again, looking at them on a computer screen without watching the game may not tell you the entire story but why not give the fans as much information as possible?
If the league ever decides to track these and other stats, and I strongly think they should as the more information they can provide for their fans the better, it would take additional staff and space for that staff at games.
This would be tough for some teams and some arenas.
Tough but not impossible.
Western Hockey League teams do it, even though some of the newer arenas don’t have space for the extra staff in the press box.
They find a way though by using a suite or a spot in the seating area.
I think some fans would enjoy more stats being available to them and I’m hoping at some point the league takes the next step in providing them.
Chiefs fans who watch forward Skyler Brind’Amour closely know he’s good on faceoffs but wouldn’t they like to know how good? And where he ranks among top faceoffs takers in the league?
I know I would.
Chiefs are on the road this weekend with stops in Powell River Saturday night and Port Alberni Sunday afternoon.
They return to home ice Wednesday, host ing the Langley Rivermen.
jb@chilliwackchiefs.net