Analytics provide a lot of value, especially the team analytics, but the real issues IMO are the public stats, and how infallible they're viewed. Especially the individual stats, which can be so easily influenced by other factors from other players, and situations in a small sample size.
With so many outliers like Kefoot and Barrie, how would you know which players stats are accurate, and which are an outlier, if you're just relying on the the stats, and not weighing whether it matches the eye test or not?
The analytics teams use are much, much better than the public stats, because they pay a team good money to provide them. You can tell this provided a benefit to the Avs against Winnipeg, because they played a noticeably different style, with a different rush attack game, and different outlets, and looked very prepared for everything the Jets did.
But when the paid team stats drill down much further into specific areas of the game, to weed out the variance, and they still run into issues like Toews is alluding to below, then that says something about the accuracy of the public stats as well.
FWIW, it sounds like Bednar doesn't approach analytics the way some do with the public stats. He wants to focus on certain areas, and he uses video to see if it matches the eye test. This is how it should be implemented for the best results IMO.
“It’s definitely two parts,” Bednar said. “Me getting the information from (the analytics staff), and it’s not just this big blob of information with all these numbers. I want it broken down in a certain way that makes sense. So the evolution of that for us was they started giving me all the information, then I talked to them about how I want it broken down because this is how I like to present it. And then it just got cleaner and tighter as it went on.”
“We’re just trying to find a competitive advantage to what we’re doing,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “Analytics gives you data, and our coaching staff does a good job of supporting it with video and the things that show you the eye test as well as the numbers.
“They do a good job of understanding, like this number is a bit of an outlier and they’re not seeing that when they watch the video. Others stick out and it’s very blatant and straightforward — this is the way they play and this is what they do and that’s why the numbers are like that. They do a good job of explaining all of that.”