The Instigators Overtime Ep. 7: Sam Ventura on Sabres Analytical Approach

On the latest The Instigators Overtime podcast Sam Ventura tells Brian Duff and Martin Biron what it means to be the Sabres vice president of hockey strategy and research. Ventura explains what statistics matter to him the most, how they’ve changed, expected goals for/against, how he communicates with the coaching staff and how he watches games. He discussed how analytics could be integrated more into broadcasts, which traditional stats could be improved, the relevance of hits & +/-, how receptive players are to analytics, and growing up & getting his start in Pittsburgh. We concluded with a few ‘Dis or Dat’ questions and Duffer and Marty shared their Three Stars of the Week.