Peter Hassett

About Peter Hassett (@peterhassett)

Pierre McGuire mansplains hockey to six-time world champion Kendall Coyne Schofield

Kendall Coyne Schofield has won five gold medals at the IIHF world championships, one Olympic silver, one Olympic gold, and one Patty Kazmaier Award for being the best collegiate hockey player in the country. Last week she became the first woman to participate in the NHL’s skills competition at the All-Star Game.

And on Wednesday night, Pierre McGuire felt he needed to tell her which team was on which side of the ice.

(more…)

Winning the breakup between Barry Trotz and the Washington Capitals

The Caps’ recent losing streak and the unexpected success of the New York Islanders have spawned a curious revisionism about how the Washington Capitals and Barry Trotz parted company in the summer of 2018. A sample from our comments:

Only one is to blame. The one whole decided not to give Barry Trotz a worthy contract.

I think a lot of people here didn’t appreciate what a huge gamble the Caps were taking by letting Trotz go.

I wish they had just given Trotz the money and the term and fired him if they needed to.

There are too many myths and mistakes about what actually went down between the Stanley Cup Champions and their coach last summer. Lots of people seem to have the wrong idea about who the villain was here.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 3 weeks ago

0 Comment

The All-Star Game, the bye week, and looming Voldemort

The Caps’ bye week has come at just the right time. Ian and I have come up for air to discuss the All-Star Game, the hidden virtues of the glow puck, slump blame, and Voldemort. Plus, a short chat with a young Caps fan who was at the ASG game and still doesn’t like Crosby.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 3 weeks ago

0 Comment

How puck- and player-tracking data will transform how we understand hockey

At Saturday night’s all-star game, we got our first glimpse of how coming puck- and player-tracking data can be used to enhance a broadcast for the audience at home.

#HiTechHockey pic.twitter.com/PlrOrabErt

— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) January 26, 2019

Using transmitters in players’ shoulder pads and inside the puck, the system captures the location and identity for each entity in each moment. The all-star game used this data to show us overlays for who each player is, how long their shifts have lasted, and how fast their shots are, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. This information will totally transform how coaching and management decisions are made.

Here are some important, practical questions that can be answered using the new data. These are questions that might be somewhat answerable now, but the new data will introduce a previously impossible economy of scale while reducing data-entry errors, human bias, and rink-to-rink variations. There’s no guarantee that we will ever see this data (and it’s not entirely clear who, the players or the league, will own the data), but this is what I’d want to know if I were an analyst or coach.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 3 weeks ago

0 Comment

The blame game

The Washington Capitals have lost seven games in a row for the first time since the mid-80s. Though this is a team failure, all members of the team do not share the blame equally. Only now, as we enter the all-star break and bye week, can we have the intellectual and emotional remove to figure out who are the good guys and who are the naughty boys.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 3 weeks ago

1 Comment

Darkening: Leafs beat Caps 6-3

In their final game before the all-star break, the Washington Capitals suffered their seventh consecutive loss. Tired, on the road, and against a hungry Toronto Maple Leafs team, the Caps just sorta bled out until the buzzer.

Goalscoring began just fine, with Backstrom at the back door, taking a pass from Kuznetsov on the power play. Leafs forward Nazem Kadri restored the tie with a net crash on a loose puck.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 37th of the season in the second period, taking a pass from TJ Oshie, but Nikita Zaitsev replied from the slot to even it back up. Auston Matthews converted a power play to put the Leafs up before the period was up.

In the third period, Kadri recorded his second and third goals of the night as the Leafs danced around the Caps defense. Matt Niskanen got a goal off a deflection while Ovi took up space in the slot, but an empty-netter sealed it.

Caps lose again.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 4 weeks ago

2 Comments

Alex Ovechkin will play against Leafs on Wednesday, suspension to come in February

Alex Ovechkin scored a hat trick in Washington’s spirit-sundering loss to San Jose, which extended their slump to six games. The Caps have just one game left before the all-star break, on Wednesday in Toronto, and Ovi says he’s playing in it.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 4 weeks ago

2 Comments

The unkillable slump: Sharks beat Caps 7-6 (OT)

The Washington Capitals tried and failed to vanquish their losing streak. They suffered a soul-eradicating overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks to make it six losses in a row. Ovechkin did stuff though. That’s something, I suppose.

Joe Pavelski started the night on a sour note, scoring for the Sharks just 12 seconds in. That stung, but not for long: Alex Ovechkin notched a power-play goal from the far side to even the score. After a lengthy drought, gangly teenager-with-promise Andre Burakovsky got a goal with a gorgeous snipe to give the Caps the lead, which they promptly squandered as Tomas Hertl got an equally pretty snipe on the power play. Before the first period was up, TJ Oshie took a nice pass from Alex Ovechkin to restore the Caps’ lead.

The Sharks brought the score even with a scramble in front of the net after a penalty expired, but Evgeny answered with a wristshot from a sharp angle to put Washington ahead. Alex Ovechkin took a drop pass from Nicklas Backstrom to make it a two-goal lead soon after. Logan Couture cut that lead in half with a [checks notes] three-on-zero rush goal after a Kuznetsov turnover.

In the third period, Alex Ovechkin scored his third hat trick of the season, seemingly locking up the win. Except Hertl tightened it up with another power-play goal, nearly identical to his first one. Then, with one second left in regulation, the Sharks tied it, forcing overtime, where Tomas Hertl completed his own hat trick to win.

CAPS LOSE. Six in a row. It burns.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 4 weeks ago

5 Comments

Why the Caps are slumping and how to stop it

The Washington Capitals are dejected losers of five straight games, disgruntled former occupants of the division lead, and recent holders of a grave, players-only meeting.

They should not despair. These kinds of slumps happen.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 4 weeks ago

4 Comments

The slumpty dance is your chance to do the slump

With five consecutive, agonizing losses in the immediate rearview, Ian and I thought this was the perfect time to get together and discuss anything but the current slump. So here is some chat about the slump and a lot about black-suit Spider-Man, picklebacks, drinking too much soda, esports, the guitar solo in What I Got, internet ads, and the All-Star Game.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 4 weeks ago

0 Comment

‹ Previous 123 4 5 6 Next ›Last »

Page 2 of 213

Posts by Peter Hassett

About Peter Hassett (@peterhassett)