Corsi, Fenwick to sport new names on NHL.com

Sidney-Crosby.

Sidney Crosby. (CP)

The terms “Corsi” and “Fenwick” won’t be part of the redesigned NHL.com when it is launched on Friday, Sportsnet has learned.

The league has instead decided to label the statistics “shot attempts” and “unblocked shot attempts,” according to sources, in hopes of making them more understandable for a broad audience.

Corsi and Fenwick are at the heart of hockey’s advanced stats movement and were named by those who helped pioneer it several years ago. Edmonton Oilers blogger Vic Ferrari (a pseudonym used by Tim Barnes) first proposed a statistic that measured shot attempts and named it after former Buffalo Sabres goalie coach Jim Corsi.

Matt Fenwick, a Calgary Flames blogger, later suggested altering the equation to remove shot attempts that were blocked, and timeonice.com soon introduced “Fenwick” into the sport’s lexicon.

Both of those will be included on the revamped NHL.com as part of an enhanced stats section that features zone starts, penalties drawn and several other new metrics. The decision to call them shots attempts and unblocked shot attempts — rather than Corsi and Fenwick — was reached after serious internal debate, according to sources.

The NHL has ambitious plans to dramatically improve its stats platform and is holding an “innovation event” in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday morning to formally unveil the first wave of changes.

The league has partnered with software innovator SAP on a website redesign that will be rolled out in four phases over the coming year. In addition to introducing new stats and expanded search capabilities, every original game sheet dating back to 1917 will eventually be digitized to provide a full record of league history.

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