Around the League
PK Subban and the Nashville Predators will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final. If you already listened to our podcast we recorded last night, you heard me talk about my hopes that Subban wins the Conn Smythe and takes the Cup to Montreal Children’s Hospital, stopping on the way to hold it over his head outside Marc Bergevin’s office like John Cusack in Say Anything
If you haven’t listened, you should go do that. It was a good episode.
In the linked article, Lambert breaks down why playoff stats indicate that the Preds have a better chance than people seem to be giving them against Pittsburgh.
In Red Wings Land
Detroit Red Wings arena costs rise to $863M | Kim Slowey, Construction Dive
I’ll readily admit that I don’t know enough about the arena financing to have an opinion on this.
Here’s the brief from the article, go there to read a little more detail:
Costs for the Detroit Red Wings’ Little Caesars Arena have now reached almost $863 million, according to Crain’s Detroit Business, nearly double the original estimate of $450 million.
Included in the new projections are $40 million for expenses related to the Detroit Pistons’ relocation to the venue and $12 million of additional subsidies for the surrounding District Detroit development.
State and local government financing accounts for $324 million of total stadium funding, and the Ilitch family, founders of Little Caesars and owners of the Red Wings, have contributed 62%, almost $539 million, toward construction of the downtown project, which includes the arena and parking garage.
If you want more information, click on the Crain’s Detroit Business link.
Bonus Link
Block Rate Signals Ailing System, Not Poor Defensemen | by Travis Flynn
If you like reading about hockey statistic analysis, Red Line is a new site. Full disclosure, it’s my brother’s site. I wouldn’t link it here if it wasn’t high quality, and I think you’ll find if you read the first article that it most definitely is.
He takes a look at what blocked shot rates can indicate about a team.
Seeing your team’s players block shots is a good thing, right? Yes and no. Snuffing out twenty-five percent of all shot-attempts certainly helps to prevent goals, but the more your players are blocking shots, the more the opponent is shooting.
If you like this type of analysis, take a look and see what you think.
LGRW!
