Joon-ho Lee

Hockey crept up on me around the time Korea was preparing to host the Winter Olympics. Suddenly the sport was everywhere, and curiosity turned into nightly habits — NHL feeds in the early morning, KHL games whenever I could find them. The more I watched, the more I realised how much organised detail hides beneath a sport most casual viewers only judge by the final goal count. My over/under work is built on the engine room of a hockey game rather than the highlights. That means goaltender form and workload, the strength of a power play and penalty kill, the quality of chances a team gives up, and how a punishing travel schedule quietly drains legs over a road trip. Expected goals and possession numbers usually tell me a far cleaner story than the scoreboard does, and that gap is where the value on totals tends to live. What I never lose sight of is how chaotic this sport can be. A goaltender on a heater can erase an entire night of sound analysis, and no model sees that coming. So I lean on repeatable process and realistic expectations, and I'd rather explain my thinking than promise you a sure thing that doesn't exist. — Joon-ho Lee