Last night, as I sat down to kinda watch the Leafs play Dallas at home, the windows were wide open, and it was still 23 degrees out. This is your global warming hockey fashion:

The Leafs lost in a game of 11 goals scored and one that was actually a little fun. It means nothing.

The standings have the Leafs maintaining at fifth last as the Rangers lost to the Panthers last night. The Kraken were losing to the Kings in the second, and if that score held, the Kings have clinched a playoff spot, and the Ducks have as well, alas.

The Flyers clinched their spot with a win, the Blues also won, giving the Leafs some breathing room. And San Jose beat the Predators, knocking them below the Kings and unable to catch them.

Very good set of results for our interests.

When we were talking about Mike Gillis and the Canucks, one thing I noticed about him was he innovated the idea of travel as an impact on players. The Goldeneyes also want data to address this.

My dear PWHL, get out of the dark ages, and produce real shot data. Please. For this and so many other reasons.

Rangers G Quick retiring after season, will make final NHL start Monday vs. Panthers
Veteran goaltender Jonathan Quick announced Monday that he will make his last-ever start as the New York Rangers take on the Florida Panthers.
TSNTSN.ca Staff

As award season draws near, it's heartwarming to see even the bespoke fancy stats crowd using stats to judge players that are heavily team-driven.

This was my special stat I evented a few years ago, so let's see how close...

There's a few differences. See if you can guess (or god help you, remember this) what the stat is.

But what my special stat does is very bluntly sort the defenders into guys who play a lot from those who don't, and those who are on better teams in terms of shotshare and those who aren't, and those who are offensively minded and those who aren't.

The question data can answer, however, is who is good at various different roles on defence. And that's a valuable answer. Who plays a lot on good teams is what you give out awards for.

As for this award. I apologize to all, but if I had a vote for this award as constructed, I'd vote for Lane Hutson (not because of my stat, though). If you wanted me to vote for the best defender, though, I'd annoy you by asking: best at what?

And that's all for now. Today we want the Flames to beat the Avalanche because if the Flames win their last too, Toronto can come fourth last. They can't now get below the Rangers.

From The Branches