Fancy Stats: The Good, the Bad, and the Outlook

I first encountered so-called "advanced" stats on this very website. I don't remember which article specifically, but I remember clearly looking up things like Corsi and Fenwick after seeing them mentioned here years ago. As someone who's always loved stats in general, it was a fun and new way of looking at the game I'd always loved to watch. Hockey could satisfy my need for number-crunching while also satisfying my needs for slick playmaking and bruising hits. Now I don't consider myself an expert in these stats, and I know I never will be. Lots of people far more knowledgeable than me are continually designing new ways to present stats, or tweaking old stats to better represent the flow of play.