Neil, well played! Having followed hockey for only the past 5 seasons, I so appreciate you covering it so well and in such depth. So many analytically focused sources largely ignore hockey. Content such as this adds so much to observers of the sport like myself. Tremendous work.
I still think this series is destined to go deep -- every game has been decided by 1 goal, the definition of a razor-thin margin between the teams -- but that's also sort of the point, it shouldn't have been viewed as some kind of colossal mismatch. idk if it was just Edmonton being more of a well-known commodity by the public (with McDavid/etc) or overstating the effect of losing Demko -- who could return by series' end (but goalies are totally unpredictable in the playoffs anyway, see Hellebuyck's crappy 1st round), but this should have always been viewed as a close matchup.
Neil, well played! Having followed hockey for only the past 5 seasons, I so appreciate you covering it so well and in such depth. So many analytically focused sources largely ignore hockey. Content such as this adds so much to observers of the sport like myself. Tremendous work.
Not to jinx it, but looking good...
I still think this series is destined to go deep -- every game has been decided by 1 goal, the definition of a razor-thin margin between the teams -- but that's also sort of the point, it shouldn't have been viewed as some kind of colossal mismatch. idk if it was just Edmonton being more of a well-known commodity by the public (with McDavid/etc) or overstating the effect of losing Demko -- who could return by series' end (but goalies are totally unpredictable in the playoffs anyway, see Hellebuyck's crappy 1st round), but this should have always been viewed as a close matchup.