So, is this thing on?

Yeah, uh, took a two year hiatus from posting regularly. So, um, hey, what's new? The good news is that over the coming days I am going to try to start posting again. The bad news is that I am going to start posting again.

Here's a little taste of what to expect:

For now, if you are looking for literally* thousands of posts, articles and Leafs related 'stuff', we'd recommend heading on over to the excellent Pension Plan Puppets ^. Like that guy with the telephoto lense at the beach, we lurk there daily.

* not literally

Update on Hockey Intelligence

I am still working on my Hockey IQ stat (HIQ), but have hit a bit of a wall with regards to getting up-to-date, timely statistics. I have a few calls in, but if anyone knows of a source, other than manually copy/pasting them from NHL.com, please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

On a personal note, I am going on a road trip through the high desert country of the American southwest, and will be back on Wednesday. Obviously, no updates till then, unless I stumble upon an internet terminal and some free-time while peering into the Grand Canyon.

My quick take on the Buds prospects for the weekend:

The struggling Devils visit the ACC on Saturday. They are having trouble scoring goals, and if the Leafs can manage to put a lid on Gionta, they have a decent chance at winning this one.

On Monday, the surprising Islanders come to town. Led by a rejuvenated Yashin and a red-hot Jason Blake, this game will be a real test. Yep, the Islanders are actually playing well. Put the credit where I feel it is due, on coach Nolan. He seems to be working his magic once again. Heck, he should be a coach of the year finalist just for getting Yashin to actually start trying out there.

Have a good weekend!

Top Secret: An Improved Hockey Stat

I am hockey stat crazy. As an aficionado, the +/- statistic has always irked me. It just doesn't seem like a very telling stat when it comes to an individual hockey player.

By way of example, look at Meszaros in Ottawa. Last season, when the team is tearing it up, he is an amazing plus 34. This year, with the Sens struggling to a 6-10-1 start, he is now an ugly minus 3. Does this stat really reflect his personal level of play, or is it more reflective of the overall play of the team? I have always felt that it is the latter.

To this end, I am creating my own statistic that should give a better glimpse of the players worth as an individual contributor, using off-the-shelf, readily available stats.

I call this stat the "Hockey Intelligence Quotient" or the HIQ. The HIQ is made up of three major components, "Defensive Intelligence" (DI), "Offensive Intelligence" (OI) and "Physical Intelligence" (PI). In mathematical terms, HIQ = DI + OI + PI. The HIQ will have a range similar to that of +/-, with a higher number obviously being better.

Using the above formula, we try to statistically break hockey down into it's raw components, and the big plus is that because it contains three seperate components, we can then rank players based on defensive, offensive and physical contributions, as well as overall HIQ.

I have started to calculate the physical component for the Leafs players this season, and so far the numbers look to be very representative.

Look for more in this space in the coming days.

Site News: Hockey Quotes

You may have noticed the quotes box in the left-hand column... only a few quotes now, but we will be adding many more in the coming days/weeks.

If you want to add famous hockey and sports quotes like this to your site/blog/forum, simply cut and paste the javascript code below:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--

var font_family = 'arial, helvetica, sans-serif';
var font_size = 'small';
var quote_align = 'left';
var quote_style = 'italic';
var quote_weight = 'normal';
var author_align = 'center';

//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" 
src="http://themadhockeyblogger.com/quotes"></script>

Simply use the standard CSS attributes in the variables in the code above to customize it, and feel free to wrap the text with your own choices of colors, etc. Enjoy!

Site News: A Shorter URL

Well, we have a shorter URL for you to remember if you want to access The Mad Hockey Blogger:

http://themadhockeyblogger.com

This will forward you to this page and all the latest posts. Just think, this will save you three to five seconds each and every time you visit the website (over the older, longer url). Over the course of a year, that is enough time to, say, clean the garage or write sports-related haiku's...

Spezza floats up ice,
He loves the lazy drop-pass,
Defense is unknown.

Welcome to the Mad Hockey Blog

Welcome to what should be an almost daily Leafs/NHL related 'blog'. There are of course many out there, but they all seem to either: 1) suck, b) be run by complete fan-boys or, iii) appear to be written by a monkey mashing a keyboard.

I will strive to be no more than one of the above at any given time. Now, on to the rants!