Advanced stats fans – here is Lindy Ruff’s take on them.

"I like looking at those numbers. I like looking at scoring chances. I like looking at our entries and the other team's entries. There are a lot of things you look at after the game on the video to confirm what you've seen," Ruff said. "But I also know that when I'm watching a game, I know a player's last five shifts and I know what he's been doing and I can assess quickly how I want to use him. Information is always good _ accurate information _ but I also know that watching the game and reacting to what's going on, it's tough to react in a timely manner and use information at a time when you might need it most. I think you have to have a combination of preparation with the information and then the ability to react during a game."

That’s fairly accurate – advanced stats should agree with what you are already seeing. They quantify what you are watching and over the course of time can be used to get a birds-eye view of how the players are doing – which is great because you aren’t going to remember nine games later, exactly what you saw nine games ago. The “react quickly” thing, I’m not as certain about. I don’t really trust advanced stats over the short term. Depending on the stat, I like to see at least 20 games of data.

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Adam Hall followed Dobber’s Rule of Fringe NHLers. He signed to play in the Swiss League.

My favorite success story of this is Hnat Domenichelli – he gave the NHL a shot up until he was 27. That’s about when the odds are completely against you making the jump full-time. He had played 267 NHL games, but never could have been considered “full time”. So he signed to play in Switzerland. There, he was able to play the game he loved, professionally. He was a star of that league, so I don’t doubt it was fun and I’m sure he made very good money – well into the six digits. He met a woman there, fell in love, married her, had two children, gained a Swiss passport and played for the Swiss at the Olympics.

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Ben Bishop signed for two years, as you know, but I was shocked at the price tag. That $11.9 million was a huge statement and it’s paying him based on one massive year. That being said, if I was his agent I would have been angling for term over annual amount. As in – $16 million over four years. Get the security for the added $4 million now, and give up potentially two years of better earnings. Because if Bishop implodes, the Lightning are only on the hook for one more year. But under my contract suggestion they would be on the hook for three more years – thereby increasing how many chances he gets to put things back on track and carve out an NHL career.

More agents need think this way – long-term certainty over short-term big bucks. They also (and when I say “they” I actually mean “some”) need to do a better job of finding a fit for their player. Right now, Carolina is short a winger. So why did Peter Mueller sign with St. Louis? The Blues already had two or three wingers too many.

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Arizona/Phoenix season in 60 seconds (including Mike Smith‘s empty-net goal):

Remember the constant “Mike Smith has more goals than Claude Giroux” jokes?