I'm surprised - apparently we're still the 3rd best team in the league in score-adjusted Fenwick %, if
this article is to be believed.
Unless they should be using Fenwick tied or close?
Advanced stats have their place but if you think about it Fenwick is just a volume statistic. It HAPPENS to APPEAR to be the most convenient variable that correlates well to scoring/winning.
Think about the premise of this article:
Score-adjusted Fenwick is a good predictor of future team success.
However, score-adjusted Fenwick is no longer a good predictor of future team success as the season goes on. Why's that?
Because Fenwick tied becomes larger? Games later in the season are tied more? Maybe that's a factor they should have accounted for somehow, no? Or at least had a better explanation.
Also, the last games are 'more random'? By what measurement is it more random? If shot differential is such a good predictor of success, why does it fail with more data? Usually the opposite is true - with more historical data applied to a model, the better it becomes at predicting future events.
Later, he states that Corsi is better for less games. But Corsi just includes blocked shots, so the amount of data is larger - and therefore better. But when Fenwick takes over later (because there are more games and therefore more data) it removes all the blocked shots so it may or may not be bringing less data to the table. Then Fenwick blows up again, inexplicably, because there is TOO much data or that's what they claim.
A better question might be - what is it about ES shot differential that makes it such a strong predictor when total shot differential doesn't do much the same job?
Anyhow, don't read too much into it. Fun to think about though.