Wikinews talk:Sports coverage

NHL news & player of the day

For the past couple weeks, I've written a daily article about the National Hockey League. As of a few days ago, I began highlighting the player who had the greatest overall performance of the day. Without people knowing what goes into consideration for this, it would be difficult for someone to know whether this is based on fact or based on opinion, so I'll try to explain what types of criteria is used.

Each day, I read pages of statistical information available for each game (game summaries, event summaries, face-off comparisons, time-on-ice reports, shot summaries, and play-by-plays), and use information in these reports to complete the main portion of the article. The player of the day also uses this information, but the player is not always chosen based solely on his numbers.

It's completely statistical most of the time (the skater with the most points [combined goals and assists], or the goalie who stops the most shots while also not allowing any goals). There are certain circumstances which would give extra consideration towards a player: rare feats (a goaltender who scored a goal, or a player that sets a league record); a player who made a significant contribution to his team (a player who scored decisive goals in the game, such as a goal to force overtime and/or a game winning goal); a player who made an impressive team/league debut (playing with a team you haven't played with before [aside from practice]). There are also certain circumstances that would be considered against a player (a player who acts in an unsportsmanlike way [misconduct penalties, match penalties, unsportsmanlike conduct, diving], but this does not include fisticuffs, which is an established aspect of the game). Penalties in general are counted against a player, however in cases where a penalty is used as a strategy, it doesn't hold as much weight.

I think I covered pretty much anything. I'm welcome to your questions, comments or suggestions. (→Zachary) 19:44, 1 March 2008 (UTC)