The one thing I both love and hate about the beginning of the NHL season is the influx of new commenters on PPP.  On the one hand I love it because we really need fresh ideas at times, especially after a long summer spent re-hashing the same few topics.  At the same time, however, it can be a bit of a drag.  You see, I've been a member at PPP for over two years now, although it seems like much longer (probably because I used to read PPP before it was even on SBN).  There are number of things that you start to take for granted once you're around for a while, and bringing the uninformed up to speed sometimes seems like a chore.  So I've compiled a few useful links today, for educational purposes:

I’m not a stats geek but you can’t argue that these advanced stats aren't helping us understand the game better. Here’s behind the net’s FAQ so you know what people are talking about when they say CORSI, GVT and QualComp. Also the data for these stats can be found at www.behindthenet.ca. In fact, there's tons of useful stuff over at behind the net. Like this post here on shot quality - if you think that shot quality is the reason the Leafs can't score, give it a read. Same goes for this one on shooting talent.

We're big fans of backing up opinons with fact here, and there are a number of regular websites we use to help us do this. One is hockey-reference.com, where you can look up just about anything you could imagine as far as traditional stats go. In fact, if you're too lazy to go to their website every time you want to look something up (and if you become a regular, you will get this way), they have a really neat browser add-on here. And if you haven't already, bookmark capgeek.com so that you know where the Leafs stand in relation to the cap. And read their FAQ so that you know how things like LTIR work.

You can find a copy of the CBA here. It's good to ask questions about the CBA but it's also good to do a bit of your own research and get familiar with this document. You can learn about things like standard player contracts, and what types of compensation NHL teams are forbidden to give.

A short word on proposing trades: try to be realistic. We're not big fans on throwing names out there and getting attached without doing some homework on whether or not this player could actually be available, what it would take in terms of the cap to make it work, and whether or not a player is even desirable. If you don't want to bother with any of this work, feel free to head on over to HF Boards.

An important one is that we do  not like HockeyBuzz here.  Please do not quote or link to Eklund.  Otherwise good writers who have decided to join forces with Eklund may still be good writers, but if you insist on linking to something they say find another source for it.  Don't be surprised if people still respond what you say with skepticism or even just disregard the point.  If you wonder why people have little to no respect for Eklund and those who are willing to be associated with him, read Wyshnyski's piece about ethical questions, McErlain's story including an interview with Eklund, and finally pretty much everything at hockeybuzzhogwash, starting with this story.  I hope that makes it all clear.

And finally read some of the PPP/Barilkosphere specific stuff that can be found on this website. If you're too lazy to click through the community guidelines on the left of this page, here's a link to get you started. And finally don't miss Skinny's 10 Ways to make the Barilkosphere a better place.

If there's anything else useful you oldtimers can think of, toss it in the links. And if there's one thing I could recommend to the newer people it's this: don't be afraid to ask questions and don't get too attached to your opinions. If you let it happen, you could really learn a lot from what you read here.

Daily links after the jump.

From The Branches