One of the most impressive data visualization developments in recent years has been the work by Grantlands Kirk Goldsberry, who

One of the most impressive data visualization developments in recent years has been the work by Grantlands Kirk Goldsberry, who designed hexagonal bin plots to display shooting tendencies and effectiveness for the National Basketball Association. Cheap Shoes UK 2020 . The idea of capturing shooting tendencies and effectiveness in the National Hockey League has been toyed around with for what feels like a decade, but there are more obvious obstacles. The biggest challenge is tied up in the efficiency aspect, because shooting percentage in the National Hockey League is primarily luck driven. As a result of this, most of the hockey analytics community have shifted their attention to shot-differentials as opposed to raw shot quality. The former is a repeatable skill that leads to favourable goal differentials and victories; the latter is swamped by noise and is more likely to cloud analysis than favourably supplement it. However, theres one aspect of shot quality that remains fascinating to me, and thats the distance from which a player or team shoots from. We know shot distance has an effect on shooting percentages – the closer the shooter is to the cage, the more likely that shot is going to end up as a goal. And, at the very least, we know a skater getting into his preferred shooting area is a fairly reproducible skill. Over at War on Ice, Andrew Thomas has borrowed Goldsberrys idea in an effort to visualize locations and success rates for players and teams using those same hexagonal bin plots. At the team-level through the first third of the season, we can use it for descriptive purposes, perhaps illuminating some of the raw data we already have at our disposal. I think the most obvious team to first pull data from would be the Dallas Stars. Dallas was a pre-season darling with many, but the team is off to an awful 10-13-5 start. Almost all of the teams struggles deals with a glaring inability to keep pucks out of the back of their net – the Dallas goaltenders have posted just a .904 5-on-5 save percentage, good for 28th in the league. Are the goaltenders just plain brutal, or is it possible theyre being kneecapped by the teams inability to keep shooters out of the danger areas? Lets look at a hexagonal bin plot, specifically shot rates against relative to the league average. Blue bubbles indicate an area where the team concedes less shots than the league average. Red bubbles indicate an area where the team concedes more shots than the league average. Ideally, you want all blue. At the very least, you want blue in front of the teams net, where shot distance is extremely small. There are two things worth noting here. First, the team has a very real problem with conceding shots. At each level, they are allowing more shots than the league average. Second, check out the population of red bubbles in front of the Dallas net. Its stunning. So, Dallas defensive problem is at least two-fold: they allow a ton of shots against, and they allow a good portion of those shots against from well inside of the home plate or scoring chance area. Add those two up, combined with maybe a goaltending talent issue as well, and you have a situation where the team has already given up 65 even-strength goals. We can illustrate the opposite, too. Lets look at the Columbus Blue Jackets on another hexagonal bin plot, this one shots for relative to the league average. The Blue Jackets – or whats left of the Blue Jackets, anyway – have scored just 37 even-strength goals, just two more than the Buffalo Sabres. Here, the opposite is true. With Columbus, you have a very real shot generation problem - the team, at each level, creates shots at a rate substantially below the league average. Further, the team is particularly poor in the home plate area. You can almost see the blue bubbles paint out this home plate, the area where most people chart scoring chances for or against. Lets bring in a third team, the seemingly-unbeatable Calgary Flames. By now, the teams inability to generate shots is well documented, and its the impetus behind their brutal 5-on-5 possession numbers - their Score-Adjusted Fenwick% at 46.1 per cent is currently bottom-five in the league. Calgary has been getting by on a 9.12 per cent 5-on-5 shooting rate, almost a point and a half better than last years number. Since we know the teams shot generation is still an issue, is it possible that the team is generating more shots from favourable areas on the ice? Lets pull out last years and this years hexagonal bin plots, to see if theres been any change in shot distance by Flames skaters. We expected the shot generation issues to show on both graphs. But, its also important to observe that the team hasnt really done anything – at least in the shot distance department – to justify a point and a half raise in shooting percentage. What we are likely seeing from Calgary is a variance-favourable run at 5-on-5, one that will likely dry up in the coming months. In the event that Calgary is unable to resuscitate abysmal territorial control, theres still a good chance – despite banking so many points early in the season – that Bob Hartleys team misses the post-season. Shoes UK Online Cheap . 1 Caroline Wozniacki and three-time champion Serena Williams cruised into the semifinals, while last years runner-up Vera Zvonareva succumbed to Aussie Samantha Stosur in Thursdays womens quarterfinal action at the U. Fake Shoes UK . PETERSBURG, Fla. https://www.shoesukonline.com/ . -- Top-ranked Stacy Lewis birdied the last three holes and five of the final six Thursday for an 8-under 64 and a share of the lead with Mi Jung Hur in the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic. ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Falcons hired Scott Pioli as assistant general manager on Wednesday, reuniting him with GM Thomas Dimitroff. Pioli was director of player personnel for the New England Patriots from 2000-08, including six seasons with Dimitroff, who directed college scouting. He was the Kansas City Chiefs general manager for four years before leaving by mutual agreement in January 2013. Pioli, 48, will join the Falcons on Feb. 3, after he completes his contract with NBC Sports and SiriusXM Radio. Pioli began his NFL career in 1992, when he was hired by Bill Belichick as a scouting assistant for the Cleveland Browns. Pioli was made the New York Jets director of pro personnel in 1997 before joining Belichick in New England. Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Dimitroff initiated the push to bring in Pioli. "This move was made as a result of Thomas commpetitive drive to build the best personnel team in the NFL, and the addition of Scott to his team certainly reflects that," Blank said. Shoes UK Online Store. Dimitroff said Pioli is "one of the most respected and adept talent evaluators in the NFL." "We have worked together well in the past and been friends for more than 20 years," Dimitroff said. "We have had the opportunity to experience a lot of success together, and I am very pleased that he has agreed to join our personnel team so we can work together again." The Falcons were 4-12 in 2013 after five straight winning seasons. "We have made the commitment to improve every aspect of our organization this off-season, and with the addition of Scott to our personnel department, we have taken an important step to enhance our scouting staff," Dimitroff said. ' ' '