Dave Staples Annual Anti-Stats Rant

The Edmonton Oilers blogs include some of the better sabermetrics blogs out there. There is mudcrutch hockey, irreverent Oiler fans, copper n blue and battle of Alberta.  Each have a strong interest in sabermetrics and have written some interesting posts on the subjects.  With the high quality of the Oiler blogosphere it is hard for the mainstream media to keep up.  However, Dave Staples at Cult of Hockey does a good job.  He writes many interesting pieces about the Edmonton Oilers and hockey in general.  These are not just the leftover articles that do not get published in the newspaper (as some weaker media blogs tend to do).  He regularly publishes some very good information on the internet.  However, one of his recurring themes (that seems to be in protest to the independent Oiler bloggers with strong sabermetric backgrounds) is that hockey statistics are not very useful.  This is a case he frequently overstates in his posts.  Last year he wrote Why Plus/Minus is a rotten, useless, misleading and irrelevant stat for NHL players.