This was honestly one of the slowest local sports weekends of the year. For example, the most popular story on CSNPhilly.com this morning – besides autoplay video ads for shitty local car dealers – is a standard article about Michael Raffl’s contract extension, which is about the most mundane news humanely possible. I mean, unless you’re Broad Street Hockey’s Charlie O’Connor, who contorted himself in the most Flyers fan way possible into lauding the signing as some stroke of genius under the headline “Michael Raffl extension a shrewd move by GM Ron Hextall“:

Raffl is certainly having a down year from a scoring standpoint in 2015-16. After potting 21 goals in 67 games in 2014-15, he only has eight goals in 61 games this season, totals more in line with those of his rookie season.

But are Raffl’s career NHL scoring statistics really that underwhelming? He hasn’t established himself as a power play forward, so it’s best to judge him based on his even strength scoring. To that end, it helps to use 5-on-5 points per 60 to evaluate a player’s efficiency at even strength. This allows us to account for the amount of ice time a player receives when judging his scoring talent.

Over his three NHL seasons, Raffl has posted a Points/60 of 1.41, ranking him ninth among Flyers’ forwards over that timespan. But while the Austrian forward has scored a rate worthy of top-nine minutes with Philadelphia, that does not necessarily mean his statistics are truly top-nine worthy at the NHL level. After all, the Flyers have been far from an elite team over the past three seasons – maybe having players like Raffl playing on one of the team’s top three lines has contributed to their mediocrity.

Fair, but he goes on to conclude that Raffl is a solid third line scorer, slotting his Corsi among other forwards and comparing his contract to other third line scorers. It’s a tome… on, at best, a third line scorer. The analysis itself is tremendous, but this has simply never been the sort of sports coverage that interests me. It’s so far in the weeds that I have mosquito bites all over my legs. And yet, here we are– your top Philly sports story of the weekend: Michael Raffl. Fun times.

Let’s hit it!

 

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The roundup:

The Flyers extended Michael Raffl. He has 17 points in 61 games this season.

 

Brett Brown called the Sixers’ effort “unprofessional.”

 

Steph Curry, stop it:

 

The Washington Post has an article about Trump’s failed mortgage program. It’s just the latest damning Trump factoid to be unearthed. This one came from solid reporting, but most are coming from Marco Rubio, who has the full Republican establishment handling the research on his behalf. It’s fun to watch. Rubio, who has stepped up his performance, is operating with the full weight of virtually every member of the Grand Old Party… and yet Trump seems to be gaining steam. This is a highly enjoyable circus.

 

Meanwhile, John Oliver:

Go here.

 

The Eagles increased their offer to Sam Bradford, reportedly. Does anyone care about this story? Because I’m “wake me when it happens” level. Eagles offseason quarterback talk is the worst talk.

 

Disney is rolling out surge pricing.

 

Dirty.

 

Adam Aron was at the Oscars and can count himself a winner, kinda

 

College baseball walk-off bat flip.

 

You can’t say that on television:

 

Raccoons love trash, so it’s no surprise one wanted to take in a Yankee spring training game.

 

Podcast:

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