from Ian MacIntyre of the Vancouver Sun,

One thing I have learned during the rapid rise of advanced statistics, which have impacted the game and how many people judge it, is that the analytics community, generally, attacks and defends with ruthless fervour. It is easy to understand why.

What has an analytics blogger at his disposal? Some are trained journalists or, at least, writers. Many are not. Many – and this is not their fault – have no access to players, coaches and managers to ask questions and seek input from people whose lives and livelihoods are devoted to the game.

To be brutally honest, however, for some bloggers the idea of seeking input from their subjects is not just unfathomable but inconvenient. Questions? Accountability?

A hobbyist-blogger may or may not be able to craft a shopping list, but he can probably churn out a 2,000-word dissertation loaded with impregnable figures arguing how a young fourth-liner who doesn’t know shit from Shinola at the NHL level isn’t being properly optimized and a coach the blogger will never face is an idiot for using a veteran who makes $6 million US this season and scored 30 goals last season ahead of the prospect on the second-unit power play.

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