Hockey Analytics, Circa 1960

[Doctor No]

Detroit Free Press, December 1, 1960.

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[Michael Farkas]

Yeah, I often cite the analytic progression...individual player shots, ice time, save/efficiency pct, plus/minus, etc. it's all evolutionary. You can't be satisfied with a metric or method just because it's the newest thing.

Also, of note, Al Langlois was Doug Harvey's partner...in my opinion, not quite an NHLer. Weak 4, fine 5. When games were tight, Langlois wore a towel around his neck. Harvey and one of the quality d-men went out there and shot it down. Langlois fizzled out and finished the year at "just" +24 - passed or tied by eight others. Or to put it more simply, he was 2006 Andreas Lilja...

 

[Hasbro]

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I have a baseball article from 1916(!) arguing that a new stat (essentially, slugging percentage) was superior to batting average. A lot of times, newer developments can be traced back to ideas from decades ago.