On July 25, 2005, as the NHL began to emerge from the darkness of the Great Lockout, I launched "On the Forecheck" on the old Blogger platform, seeking to work off a little creative energy and get thinking about hockey again after too long of a break.
I'm coming up on 2,000 posts since then, and it's definitely come a long way, mostly in directions I never could have predicted!
To celebrate, I just wanted to share some of my favorite articles from over the years:
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21st Century Hockey Analysis Begins - My initial foray in NHL stats analysis, looking at which centers helped generate quick shots off a faceoff win.
- Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics... - A college professor seriously published an academic paper claiming that taking major penalties helped teams win games. I, and a few other hockey bloggers, enjoyed ripping the article to shreds.
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A modest proposal for the Nashville Predators - during the 2007 playoffs, I got frustrated with how the outside world treated the team, and offered up my own marketing suggestion.
- My Letter To Gary - When Jim Balsillie started taking deposits for the Hamilton Predators, that truly crossed the line and I penned an open letter to the commish.
- A deeper look at the NHL schedule - the first of my Super Schedules, which makes it easy to compare the difficulty of each team's 82-game journey.
- Hook Me, Trip Me, Tell Me Lies... - In the fall of 2007 the NHL first started recording which player drew a given penalty, which led to Penalty Plus/Minus analysis.
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Steve Sullivan injured as Shea Weber's slap shot claims another victim - at first I had something different in mind that day, then this idea came out of the blue...
Thanks for reading, and let me know where you'd like things to head going forward!