Danny Briere’s having a tough season. At $6.5 million a year, the Flyers are paying him $154,761.91 per point. That’s an even worse ratio than Alex Ovechkin ($147,540.98), who is having the worst season of his career. But what the Flyers are really paying for in Briere is an exception playoff performer, whose playoff point per game (.990) is nearly 20 per cent higher than his season point per game average (.838). Continue reading »
I know intrinsically that the quality of a shot matters. I am more terrified of a clean wrister from the slot than a 50 ft. slap shot (unless you’re Dan Cloutier). I do believe that tipped shots do make the goalie’s job a lot harder. I also do believe that a shot from Zdeno Chara is of much better quality, on average, than Boris Valabik’s. So it perplexes me a little when Jonathan Willis at the Cult of Hockey says shot quality studies are a waste of time.