Oh, hey, it’s September.
It’s only 28 days, four weeks exactly, until NHL opening night and roughly two weeks, give or take a few days, from when NHL teams report for training camp.
Nothing groundbreaking here today, in fact this is more of a meandering of thoughts, but I wanted to open some conversations about how and why things happen within the sport.
So first, the impetus for this line of thinking. Earlier today I was at the library working on a different project and started looking through the magazines, where I picked up the most recent edition of Sports Illustrated, which had a story about Brentford in the Premier League and how the club’s data-usage. In particular, the story dives into Brentford’s data-driven approach to set pieces, and how in the Premier League, much larger clubs are now using similar models to add to their success.
It’s a good piece, I encourage you to read it, even if you don’t like soccer.
But reading it reminded me of a story that I was told by former Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland, who is now the GM of the Los Angeles Kings.
This must have been 10 years ago or so, and I was the NHL Prospect Tournament in Traverse City (R.I.P.) and I was talking with Holland and a couple other reporters about the Red Wings drafting history and how they dynastic years were built.
Holland compared the past Red Wings drafting success, finding Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, for example, to an ice fishing expedition.
I’m paraphrasing here, but Holland got pretty animated relaying the tale.
We were the only ones looking in the right places, and it’s like ice fishing, you pull something out of a hole, like ‘hey we got a Datsyuk!’ or ‘Hey we got a Zetterberg!’ and all of a sudden you see more fishing lines in your hole.
Basically you can’t go sit by yourself at the ice fishing hole anymore, because you’ve brought back too much fish and everyone wants a piece.
Again, I’m paraphrasing, but the point here is near the end of his time in Detroit, Holland was talking about how best practices for his team led to best practices for other teams and therefore created slimmer margins in drafting.
That’s what’s happened in the Premier League and for Brentford, while a set-piece heavy data-driven approach is still good, it’s no longer unique with other teams putting just as much work into something.
It’s kind of how the standard rises in sport, something works, everyone steals and then we have a new base for what is the norm.
Kind of wanted to open the conversation here in the comments and pick some reader brains as we go into the 2026-27 hockey season. What ideas/approaches, in your mind have evolved in this way? What makes you curious about it?
Again, not ground breaking piece, in fact I’m giving you the work, but wanted to open the conversation.
Thanks for reading.
The NHL has always been a copycat league. A lot of “200 Hockey Men” who only begrudgingly come around to new approaches after another team has success with that approach.
Historically, goalies have been very copycatted (I deem it a word). For instance, the butterfly style coming into widespread usage, or teams having dedicated goalie coaches. Or video review “eyes in the sky.”
I wonder when teams will actually embrace the trend of player rest and maintenance. Adding in extra games to the season will make that even more important.