Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn. Chris Smalling Jersey .ca. Hi Kerry, Welcome back! Im sure you heard Peter Forsbergs comments last week regarding Canadian referees in the gold medal game. Seems to me that he was questioning the integrity and impartiality.Did you think there was anything peculiar about this decision? Thanks,Ed Hi Ed: I am thrilled that NHL hockey is back and we can all adjust our watches back to the North American time zone! Initially, I was surprised by the expletive-deleted comments Peter Forsberg made the day before the Gold Medal game and following the IIHFs selection of four North American NHL officials to work the Canada-Sweden game. Even though the officials nationality and residency slanted exclusively toward Canadian soil, the timing of Forsbergs comments (the day before the puck was dropped) caused me to pause and consider the Swedish general managers motives. Ive seen plenty of "gamesmanship" from general managers and coaches during Stanley Cup playoffs and finals, but Peter Forsbergs public comments rank up near the top of the list in attempting to gain an advantage and competitive edge. Peter was not only a world class player but I also know him to be a very intense competitor. That being said, Peter is not a stupid man and made a calculated move in hopes of gaining some advantage for his players against a highly skilled Canadian team. I believe Peters comments were designed to put the IIHF on notice in the event he felt the need to complain post-game but most importantly to plant a seed in the head of each game official hoping his team might receive the benefit of the doubt when one could be offered. It also became a story the day before the game designed to deflect some of the pressure away from Team Sweden players. I dont believe that Peter Forsberg would honestly question the integrity and impartiality of the NHL Officials that were assigned to work the game. Kelly Sutherland, Brad Meir, Derek Amell and Greg Devorski were selected on the merit of their work during the Olympics and were regarded as the very best! They are professionals in the true sense of the word. The players have more confidence in the NHL officials ability than their International counterparts. Swedish team captain Niklas Kronwall of the Detroit Red Wings believed that both teams would benefit from North American officials when he was quoted as saying, "We are used to having referees from USA and Canada in the NHL. We know their standards so I think its easier for us too if the referees are from there." And teammate Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators agreed. Prior to 1998, the IIHF would not assign an official to work a game in which his country of nationality was participating in. Only neutral officials were assigned. That changed in Nagano with the inclusion of NHL players and officials. The best officials were assigned to the games regardless of their country of nationality or residency. In response to Peter Forsbergs comments, IIHF officiating manager Konstantin Komisarov issued the following statement on the selection process; "The main factor of the selection of these officials has most of all to do with their experience officiating in high-level competitions. These include Stanley Cup playoffs, World Championship competitions and Olympic competitions. Their nationalities arent considered as factors nor should they be, we want the best officials working the medal games. We are fully confident that with their experience and professionalism these officials will do their job well and preserve the integrity of the game." Good for Konstantin Komissarov and the IIHF officiating committee for selecting the best officials to work the Gold Medal game. The officiating crew did an outstanding job and preserved the integrity of the game as Konstantin was confident they would. Last Sunday, the game was played on Olympic ice in Sochi and not in the media. Peter Forsbergs silver medal-winning Swedish team was beaten fair and square by Canada to take Gold. The officiating was a complete non-factor; regardless of county of nationality. NHL officials are clearly the best in the world. David de Gea Jersey . Burris threw for 247 yards in one half of a game -- on pace for a nearly 500-yard outing -- as the Redblacks downed the woeful Montreal Alouettes 26-10 in CFL pre-season play Friday night at Percival Molson Stadium. Sergio Romero Manchester United Jersey . "Rob brings a wealth of coaching experience, having worked both in Canada and overseas in player development," Canada Soccer technical director Tony Fonseca said in a release. http://www.jerseymanchesterunitedsoccer.com/womens-antonio-valencia-manchester-united-jersey/ . Bjoerndalen broke the record he shared with cross-country skiing great Bjoern Daehlie, also matching his fellow Norwegians record of eight gold medals. Bjoerndalen earlier won gold in Sochi in the mens sprint biathlon.If you had two sets of data, one being a team’s shooting percentage, and the other being a team’s ability to generate shot-attempts, which set would be better in terms of predicting future 5-on-5 goal-scoring ability? At first blush, one may guess the former. After all, it gives us the percentage of shots on net that result in a goal. The latter set of data only tells us how frequently shots are generated, and tells us little – if anything – about a team’s goal-scoring ability. But, that’s not the case. Plenty of work has been done on this topic, particularly at even-strength. The answer is clear: shot-attempt metrics and puck possession proxies like Corsi are much more predictive than shooting percentage, primarily because shooting percentage is swamped by random variance. It’s important to note that this also holds true for special teams. While many hockey analysts appear to obsess over raw conversion rates, the same above principle – that shot generation is far more predictive of future success (or failure) than shooting percentage – is vital in forecasting future success. Why? Because shooting percentage, even in a power-play situation where scoring chances are aplenty, is not a very repeatable skill. It’s easy to illustrate this by simply grabbing a team’s shooting percentage over the first half of the season, and finding how well it correlates to the team’s shooting percentage over the second half of the season. Taken from the years 2007 through 2011: I included the coefficient of determination (0.01) – or percent of variance explained – to illustrate the randomness in shooting percentage. As you can see, a team’s 5-on-4 shooting percentage through the first 41 games of the season does nothing in terms of telling us how well it will convert on shots over the next 41 games. Shot-attempt generation, we know, is a repeatable 5-on-5 skill. Does the same hold true for 5-on-4? Let’s grab the CorsiFor/60 for the same teams in the above sample, and see if their first-half numbers and second-half numbers show similarity. The graph and coefficient of determination here are much more convincing. A team’s ability to generate (or not generate) shots through the first 41 games will likely carry over to the next 41 games, which means this particular measurement has predictive value – far more than, say, shooting percentage. More than anything else, I think this topic is timely. If you poll members and fans of the National Hockey League as to who the league’s deadliest power-play is right now, I think you’ll get a stunningly similar response in the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, that’s a decent choice – they have a ton of talented forwards, they have exhibited ability to generate shot-attempts with frequency in every game-state, and they have puck-movers on the back-end who can whip the puck through the neutral zone with tempo. All of that iss fantastic However, the primary reason I think most would select the Pittsburgh Penguins right now is conveniently tied into the fact that they’ve converted on 31. Marcos Rojo Jersey. .6% of their power-plays through a 17.54% shooting percentage, second-highest in the league. But, if we are trying to forecast future outcomes, we know to move away from shooting percentages and gravitate towards shot generation. How do the Pittsburgh Penguins look in that aspect of the game? Power Play CorsiFor/60 Rank Team CorsiFor/60 1. Washington Capitals 127.7 2. San Jose Sharks 114.3 3. Arizona Coyotes 113.9 4. Philadelphia Flyers 106.2 5. Chicago Blackhawks 104.2 6. Toronto Maple Leafs 102.5 7. Winnipeg Jets 102.3 8. Detroit Red Wings 101.5 9. Boston Bruins 100.9 10. Ottawa Senators 96.8 11. New York Rangers 95.2 12. Pittsburgh Penguins 95.1 In reality, what we have in Pittsburgh is a good power-play with elite scoring talent. I’m highly skeptical, however, that it’s going to be the best unit by the end of the season, because it still pales in comparison to the units established in Washington (currently 28.8% conversion rate; 2nd) and San Jose (currently a 23.8% conversion rate; 4th), both historically and through the first leg of 2014-2015. Washington’s power-play has been performance art for years, and if nothing else, these early season numbers show the kind of incredible ability they have at blitzing opposing penalty kill units. Their scheme starts with a series of well-designed neutral zone rushes, and almost always features the likes of Nicklas Backstrom and Marcus Johansson on the right-side of the ice, with Alex Ovechkin waiting in his one-time wheelhouse for cross-ice passes. Backstrom and Johansson generally engage in sequences of back-and-forth passing to draw the defense deeper towards their own crease, which sets up two other options away from the Ovechkin primary at the blueline. If the defense pays too much respect to Ovechkin, Mike Green, John Carlson, and Matt Niskanen hammer away from the point. And if the defense pays equitable respect to the point shot and Ovechkin, Backstrom and Johansson needle their way deeper into the box of the penalty kill. If teams are looking at ways to improve their power play through modelling the attacking styles around the league, they could do worse than Mike Johnston’s Pittsburgh Penguins. But, right now, the kings of 5-on-4 still reside in the D.C. area. And, the king of predictive utility for power-play performance is still embedded in shot attempts. ' ' '