More Hilarity From The Anti-Stats Crowd

In August I find it hard to listen to sports talk radio in Edmonton. There is next to nothing to discuss, which makes shows I can barely tolerate at the best of times completely unbearable. So rather than subject myself to that torture, and safe in the knowledge that I'm not missing anything of value, I listen to music; this morning I went with a Grateful Dead concert from April of 1978, it's two hours and 49 minutes of pure brilliance.

But this morning I did miss something worth discussing, an interview with Derek Van Diest of the Edmonton Sun. Thanks to @YakovMironov though, this gem managed to find it's way into my Twitter timeline. You can listen to the full interview here, the craziness starts at the 28:40 mark. I strongly suggest listening to the whole interview because it's just fantastic, but I wanted to pull out one quote which is just too wonderful to overlook.

I don't even know how they come up with these stats. Like who's sitting down figuring out Corsi? Is there someone actually watching every game and marking down every time there's a dump in, or an opportunity, or a blocked shot? Who's out there watching these stats guys? Are these legitimate stats or are they just trying to mould them into saying what they want them to say?

I believe analytics can tell us a lot about hockey. I also understand that not everyone shares that opinion. And, you know what, that's fine, we don't all have to agree all of the time. But I think having a basic understanding of something before going on the radio to rip it apart would probably be a good idea. Less than five minutes of research would provide you with all the knowledge required to understand exactly who's figuring out Corsi. Or you know, go on a radio show and prove to the world that you have no idea what you're talking about. It's up to you.