It’s a defense-heavy review of Rob Vollman and Friends’ 2017 edition of The Hockey Abstract as the breakdown of their thirteen metrics for judging teams continues. Parts one through four have done little to assuage the concerns surrounding the 2017-18 Minnesota Wild despite management assuring that they were winners on July 1st with a bevvy of depth signings.
First, just a quick re-cap of those thirteen criteria:
1. Puck Possession (18th, “top lines are great, their depth lines are not”)
2. Shootout (18th, “have the shooters, but Dubnyk is weak in the shootout”)
3.