Stopping Those Shots Off the Draw

As a followup to a piece I wrote early last week regarding faceoff men who generate shots in the offensive zone, it occured to me that the flip side of that coin is just as interesting. On the opposite side of the dot, who are the faceoff men who best prevent shots in their own end? Even in losing a faceoff, there's a big difference between a clean draw back to the point and a puck that's tied up in the middle of a scrum. So who do you want out there protecting a late lead with a faceoff coming up in your own zone?

The screen is for a minimum of 100 defensive-zone faceoffs during the 2005-6 NHL Regular Season, where the opposing team took a shot within 5 seconds of the draw.

Top Lock-Down Specialists (fewest shots)
Mark SMITH, SJS 3.47%
Patrik STEFAN, ATL 3.56%
Matt STAJAN, TOR 4.27%
Niko KAPANEN, DAL 4.33%
Alyn MCCAULEY, SJS 4.60%
Rico FATA, PIT 5.36%
Shane ENDICOTT, PIT 5.41%
Vernon FIDDLER, NSH 5.67%
Jamal MAYERS, STL 5.73%
Bobby HOLIK, ATL 5.77%
Kris DRAPER, DET 5.93%
Todd MARCHANT, ANA 5.93%
Mike SILLINGER, NSH 5.98%
Patrice BERGERON, BOS 6.00%
Shawn BATES, NYI 6.05%

Top Coach-Killers (most shots)
Michael NYLANDER, NYR 19.49% Sidney CROSBY, PIT 17.21% Eric STAAL, CAR 15.56% Mike RIBEIRO, MTL 15.26% Ryan MALONE, PIT 14.60%
Brooks LAICH, WSH 14.58%
Daniel BRIERE, BUF 14.48%
Ryan GETZLAF, ANA 14.00%
Olli JOKINEN, FLA 13.93%
Miroslav SATAN, NIY 13.73%
Saku KOIVU, MTL 13.66%
Kevyn ADAMS, CAR 13.53%
Stephen WEISS, FLA 13.24%
Kyle WELLWOOD, TOR 13.21%
Jarome IGINLA, CGY 12.59%

Celebrating a milestone month

I've been remiss in providing regular updates on my quest to turn this whole sports-blogging hobby into at least something of a significant side income, if not a career, but good news has a way of prompting action. That, and I've been heads-down busy working on a few different fronts to push things forward...

Social Media, Internet Marketing, and Real, Paying Customers - it really works!

Applying the basic tenets of internet marketing (SEO best practices and social media network building) have helped me grow the readership and engagement over at On The Forecheck tremendously in recent years, but lately I've been wondering if those same techniques could be applied to small- or medium-sized local businesses, to help them drive real, tangible business results. I'm talking about not just drawing idle hockey fans looking to a blog so they can muse over line combinations, but helping businesses connect with potential customers in ways that otherwise wouldn't occur. Recently, I was able to help make just such a thing happen, and it shows just how great the opportunities are for small, local businesses which may not have the resources or skills available to extend their brand effectively on the internet.

NHL Fake Trades, an idea worth pursuing further in 2013

As I wrote about a month ago , I decided to jump upon a short-term opportunity and set up a "hot topic" website for the 2012 NHL Trade Deadline. NHLFakeTrades.com was inspired by a column by Eric Duhatschek of the Globe & Mail, who looked at the frenzy with which hockey fans jump on even the sketchiest of information about potential hockey trades, and wondered if some cash could be made by simply and forthrightly writing about fictitious trade scenarios. This meshed nicely with an exercise I went through a few years ago to create a Random Trade Generator, so in the course of a few hours I went ahead and registered the domain, set up a WordPress site using ( as I do at Hockey Gear HQ ) the wonderful Genesis framework with the News theme , and freshened up the Trade Generator for 2012. So how did it do, in terms of traffic, revenue, and accuracy of the trade projections? Let's take a look...

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