Hey Dennis...nobody wants you to give up the secret sauce recipe...lol.
I guess my question relates to the minutiae of the huge volume of advanced stats being calculated nowadays. Goes back to "moneyball" I guess in MLB with Billy Beane and the Oakland A's.
For sure, it keeps all the stat guys in the back offices of a lot of sites gainfully employed...and it's great for hot stove on some cold nights.
I'll just mention the xGF% that you referenced. That stat is meant to be used in line matchups (usually by the asst. coaches who crunch those numbers to make the head coach look good on game nights). Expecting the xGF% stats to be dropped in a pot with all 12 forwards and come out with a legitimate number that can be used for comparison...I'm not sure that's an effective tool. It's fine for each team's brain thrust, but for us to give it such an important place in the ultimate matchup of two teams...I'm not sure.
I'm not saying you shouldn't do what you do, because it's clearly successful, but a lot of times a 2 vs 23 matchup is also probably a top-10 team versus a bottom-10 team without looking at any advanced stats. Odds are the #2 is gonna win 8/10 times.
I'll just mention the xGF% again, and you're saying the Rangers are 23rd this season.
Okay...the numbers don't lie as far as they go. But the Rangers were 6th in GF...and 7th in GA...and they were 7th in Goal Differential. Those are real numbers which resulted in a darn good regular season lol.
So anyway...thank you, Dennis, for your reply and for all your efforts all year long. It's not a lot of fun crunching numbers in most things, but doing it in something you love like NHL hockey makes it a little more bearable I'd say.
Cheers, buddy...all the best!!!