Evening Links: Trade Deadline Edition

The NHL trade deadline is fast approaching, and SBN has a hub to keep you informed. Among the big topics are this weekend’s Sabres/Blues trade involving Ryan Miller, Jaroslav Halak, Steve Ott and Chris Stewart (read about that one), as well as speculation surrounding possible Oilers trades including Ales Hemsky.

On our side, of course, Mike Cammalleri will probably be gone in a matter of days. Teams that have supposedly inquired about him include his old friends the Los Angeles Kings, as well as the Senators, Devils, and Sharks. New parent Lee Stempniak is likely also on the trade block.

Other stuff

The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference happened last week, and as usual, the NHL was not well represented compared to the other major sports. The Boston Globe ran with a slightly more favourable description of Brian Burke's stance than I would have; Burke is an extreme traditionalist and is very adamant about the old way:

And we’re off. Burke asked immediately if his view on analytics has changed. Says no immediately: “I think it’s an eyeballs business.”

— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) February 28, 2014

More to the point, Burke commented "let's not confuse analytics with arithmetic", which is quite an oversimplification. You might recall Sam Page's piece on Eric Tulsky from a previous link post—this is the sort of thing I'd rather be hearing more often, or at least an openness to it. Hockey's a tough game to quantify because team sports always have more noise, but saying "well, math doesn't tell you anything" is also not true.

ANYWAY.

While we’re in the intermission (I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping Eddie Lack brutally implodes so that Torts is forced to put Roberto Luongo in), you can also read about the Vancouver Millionaires’ 1915 Stanley Cup win over the old Ottawa Senators, back in a time when “forward passing was largely illegal, goaltenders weren’t allowed to leave their feet and players stayed on the ice for most of the game.”

by Ruhee Dewji