Katie Baker actually makes a sports analytics conference sound like a lot of fun!  Get your advanced stats on, sports fans!

I love this paragraph:

The whole thing could be a case study in the never-ending debate about the actual effectiveness of a hockey fight. Personally, I was torn: In the context of the game, I appreciated Chara's move. (Head coach Claude Julien said that while it's obviously a loss to have Chara off the ice, he supported his decision: "When people take liberties on our good players, we go to their defense.") On the other hand, I've been brainwashed by science into being skeptical that the strategy is worth it in any sort of statistically significant way, and it mildly upsets me that I can't really animalistically rah rah even a good scrap with an understandable backstory anymore without having phrases like "statistically significant" pop into my head.

Does the momentum boost from fighting help teams win games?

Unclear.

But it's funny that there's an ongoing debate (with stats!) about it.