Former Canucks assistant general manager Laurence Gilman was on Vancouver’s TSN 1040 on Wednesday morning.
On what day-to-day life has been like for him :
(The first chunk of Gilman’s answer related to having significantly more time with the family…)
“And I watched a lot of hockey as well. It was actually really quite good. I watched from a different lens. Not being affiliated with anyone, it changed the way I looked at the game.”
How so?
“I watch a lot of different things now. I watch the players on the bench more. I watch what happens in the neutral zone a little more, oddly enough. I watch how goaltenders play the puck. I wasn’t committed to the outcome in any way.”
So the subtlety and the nuance…
“Absolutely. And I enjoyed it. A lot. I’ll tell you what – I have appreciation for players that I didn’t appreciate before, particularly guys that play on the bottom end of rosters. Fourth-line centers, and third-pairing defensemen who don’t generate a lot of points, but possess the puck a lot or separate the opposing forward from the puck.
“And I read a great deal, and followed a lot of what is happening in the world of analytics with hockey.”
On if he still believes analytics to be the new frontier:
“I do. I mean, I think it’s a weapon in the quiver, if you will. I don’t think that you run your team solely based on possession metrics or Corsi or Fenwick stats, but I do think that is indicative of how the game is being played…
“The term analytics – it’s like the term dyslexia, I think. It means everything and it means nothing. It is such a broad discipline and there are so many things that you can look at statistically that impact the game; whether it’s possession, whether it’s zone entries and zone exits. It’s not just how many shots get taken on the ice when a guy is on versus when he’s off.”
Source: TSN 1040/ Transcript: Nichols
