How the Corsi stat got its name

[zbubble]

Forgive me if this has been posted here before, I just came across this article and thought it was fascinating. Feel free to merge or delete if it winds up being redundant.

http://www.tsn.ca/mckenzie-the-real-story-of-how-corsi-got-its-name-1.100011

Most everyone in the advanced stats community also thinks they know exactly how Corsi got its name.

Legend has it that Vic Ferrari heard long-time Buffalo Sabre goalie coach Jim Corsi on a radio interview talking about measuring a goalie’s workload by tallying up not only shots on goal but missed shots and blocked shots as well and then Ferrari went into his secret hockey nerd lair in Edmonton, crunched the numbers, sprinkled some magic dust and, poof, Corsi was born, named for the cerebral goalie coach and former math teacher who inspired it.

Not true.

Ferrari told me it was actually then Buffalo Sabre general manager Darcy Regier he originally heard on the radio talking about shot attempts, not Jim Corsi. In fact, at that moment, when Ferrari was listening to Regier, he had never even heard of Jim Corsi.

Here’s what Ferrari told me in April:

“I was going to call (the new metric) the “Regier†number. But it didn’t sound good; it didn’t seem right. Then I was going to call it the “Ruff†number (after then Sabres’ coach Lindy Ruff), but that obviously sounded bad. So I went to the Buffalo Sabre website and looked at a picture of a guy on their website, and Jim Corsi kind of fit the bill. So I called it a “Corsi number†and then I pretended it was (Corsi) I heard on the radio talking about it – that’s what I told people. That’s basically (how Corsi got named).â€

Wait a minute. Was Ferrari actually saying Corsi became Corsi because he liked the look of Jim Corsi’s picture, especially his moustache, on the Sabre website and the sound of his surname?

That’s exactly what Ferrari was saying.

“I always prepared myself (that if the stat became well known) – hey, it was just a small group of nerds talking hockey – that eventually (Jim) Corsi or someone would come to me and say, ‘What the hell are you guys talking about and why are you (using my name)?’†Corsi told me. “I figured if it happened, I would apologize and carry on.

“I was really surprised a few years ago when I read a story in USA Today where (Jim) Corsi talked about how the inspiration (for measuring shot attempts) came to him when he was skiing in the Alps, and I thought, ‘(expletive deleted), it came to me when I saw your picture on a website, because I liked your moustache.â€

A good story gets even better, though.

Ferrari had no idea back then, or even during our interview in April (until I told him), that Jim Corsi was actually the individual responsible for measuring a goalie’s workload by counting shots on goal + missed shots + blocked shots and, therefore, Ferrari’s random naming of Corsi turned out to be oh so fortuitous, that Regier wouldn’t have been talking about it if not for Corsi.

“Oh, I had no idea of that,†Ferrari said. “I just liked his moustache.â€

Seriously. You can’t make up this stuff.

I recounted this story to former Sabre GM Regier, who is now working as an assistant GM in Phoenix, and I feared he was going to drive off the road, he was laughing so hard.

“I always kidded Jim that he was the self-proclaimed protector of all goalies,†Regier said. “He was always looking for a stat that would give his goalies their due. (Adding up shots on goal, blocked shots and missed shots) was something along those lines. Jim was always charting shots – where they came from, that stuff. In all the years I’ve known him, Jim never tried to take credit for (the Corsi metric as it more sophisticatedly applied now). He was just interested in tracking shots for his goalies…I can assure you, if I was on the radio talking about that sort of (statistical) stuff, it would have come from Jim…â€

If the story generated uproarious laughter from Regier, the laugh track was long and loud from Jim Corsi himself when he was told the story how “Corsi†actually got its name.

“Are you serious?†Corsi said, laughing. “That is so funny for that to come out after all these years. You actually talked to (Ferrari)? That’s amazing. I’ve always told people I was flattered he used my name but it was always sort of a mystery to me how it came about.â€

As Regier said, and Corsi has always been quick to add, at no time ever did the genial goalie coach try to take credit for the metric as devised by Ferrari. He was just thinking a little outside the box in terms of doing his job at that time in his dealings his goaltenders and fellow coaches and management.

“That’s why Darcy and I get along as well we do,†said Corsi, who is in his first year as goalie coach of the St. Louis Blues after so many years in Buffalo with the Sabres. “Darcy has an analytical mind and so do I. So maybe (the naming of Corsi) was, what do they call it, serendipity? It’s funny to find out (how Ferrari actually came to use Corsi’s name) and it’s funny I was (tying to track shot attempts) and (Ferrari) didn’t even know that. Who could have imagined that? That’s hilarious.â€

So there you have it – the real story of how Corsi got its name.

Click to read more...

 

[dire wolf]

That's great. I always wondered about that.

 

[Sean McG]

Bob fairly recently released a book called Hockey Confidential, highly recommend it, and there's a whole #fancystats chapter where he goes into even more depth about the name. Pretty funny story.