Rob Vollman's Hockey Abstract 2014 Paperback – August 7, 2014

Vollman's Abstract is as easy to understand a book on this stuff as you're going to find. There's a favorable blurb on the back from Kelly Hrudey. *Kelly Hrudey*, for cryin' out loud. If he can "get it," any of us can. And after watching Dellow's blog and ExtraSkater go dark on us, now that the statisticians are coming down from the hills to take over, it's good to know that even if Vollman gets hired by someone to explain hockey analytics to them and how to use them, his book won't vanish.It's even better than last year, the first one he did (blue cover), which got everyone looking forward to this one. Well, it's here.

good insight, I think. I'm new to hockey so a lot of the analysis makes my eyes glaze over. I ended up looking up all the column headings to see what they mean and at some point I just got frustrated and gave up. Maybe with a year of hockey under my belt, next years version will make more sense.

Read Hockey Abstract 2013 first, or at least brush up on your fancy stats, because he assumes a basic understanding of Corsi, Fenwick, PDO, etc.Still, this is THE book if you want to learn about the evolving use of analytics in hockey. The chapter on "Dirty Rat Penalty Minutes" (guess what, Brad Marchand came in first) in particular was hilarious.I've been recommending it to every hockey nerd I know, and it's great to have on hand and whip out during arguments about a player's usage.

Great book. Great book. Great book. Great book. Great book. Great book. Great book. Great book. Hockey Lover in LA

Very awesome read. Not too number-heavy. One recommendation for the authors is to include a "formula section" at the end of the book or in footnotes to allow easy access to that information for those interested.

A worthy successor to the inaugural book of the same title last year. Well done, Rob, Tom and Iain!

Doesn't provide any unique or game changing insight into the game but rather a statistical gathering and analysis of common data. Could be an interesting read for some, but for me it didn't provide any new information that already isn't known.

My copy came with a monster truck coloring book in the middle of it!