Cancucks Coach Adam Foote Hilariously Rips Stat Nerds Having 'Cashews And Cigarettes'

The biggest old-school vs. new-school debate in hockey has to do with analytics and how they should be used when putting together a successful team. Well, I think we know which side of the debate Vancouver Canucks head coach Adam Foote is on.

The former NHL D-Man inherited a Canucks team that was coming off a rough 2024-25 campaign that included underperformance and some internal turmoil among players, after the team decided to part company with former head coach Rick Tocchet.

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That underperformance has continued this season, with the team just one point clear of the Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division basement.

"There’s a ton of things I’m real happy about, but I’m more happy with wins," Foote said. "I’m not going to blow up a kid or something being overanalyzed by, no disrespect, people that really don’t know.

"They’re just looking at numbers from people that could be in Russia in a basement, having cigarettes and cashews, telling them they’re scoring chances," he continued. "So, we’re going to depend on our guys, and really recognize what we believe has to be fixed and what doesn’t."

What a line!

How many Vancouver-area fantasy hockey owners changed their team name to "Cashews and Cigarettes" after that? My guess is all of them.

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I get what Foote's saying. I think modern hockey is overly-reliant on analytics… but they're not useless. You just have to be sure you're looking at the right ones and putting them in context.

Take +/- for instance, which a lot of stat nerds note is pretty flawed in the first place. You'll almost always see the worst +/- ratings belonging to top-pair defenseman on bad teams or guys who kill a lot of penalties on a team with a garbage penalty kill.

Why? Because both scenarios involve someone being on the ice a lot in situations where a goal against is more likely, even if it's not necessarily their fault.

That said, numbers can't tell the entire story, especially away from the puck.

So, sometimes those guys in Russia crushing cashews and lung darts sometimes know what they're doing, sometimes it's bogus.