Sunday, February 22, 2004
Different Ranking in the East
Today's Eastern Conference rankings are an example of where the StatBoni differs from the NHL. Where the NHL has
Toronto, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, and Ottawa,
based on "games in hand", W-L, or PPG, StatBoni shows
Ottawa, Phildelphia, Tampa Bay, and Toronto.
Noting that Philadelphia and Toronto both have 80 points, but Ottawa has a game in hand with Toronto, and two with Philadelphia. Interestingly, the PPG metric is the better discriminator here, since W-L has Toronto and Ottawa tied. Hats off to Chipazzo for the PPG ranking idea!
Toronto, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, and Ottawa,
based on "games in hand", W-L, or PPG, StatBoni shows
Ottawa, Phildelphia, Tampa Bay, and Toronto.
Noting that Philadelphia and Toronto both have 80 points, but Ottawa has a game in hand with Toronto, and two with Philadelphia. Interestingly, the PPG metric is the better discriminator here, since W-L has Toronto and Ottawa tied. Hats off to Chipazzo for the PPG ranking idea!
Saturday, February 21, 2004
Unofficial Standings
East:
1. Toronto
2. Philadelphia
3. Tampa Bay
4. Ottawa
5. Boston
6. New Jersey
7. NY Islanders
8. Montreal
Tentative 1st Round:
Toronto - Montreal
Philadelphia - Isles
Tampa Bay - NJ
Ottawa - Boston
StatBoni agrees with the NHL today!
West:
1. Detroit
2. Colorado
3. San Jose
4. Vancouver
5. Calgary
6. Nashville *
7. Dallas *
8. St Louis
* Differ with the NHL
First Round pairings:
Detroit - St Louis
Colorado - Dallas *
San Jose - Nashville *
Vancouver - Calgary
1. Toronto
2. Philadelphia
3. Tampa Bay
4. Ottawa
5. Boston
6. New Jersey
7. NY Islanders
8. Montreal
Tentative 1st Round:
Toronto - Montreal
Philadelphia - Isles
Tampa Bay - NJ
Ottawa - Boston
StatBoni agrees with the NHL today!
West:
1. Detroit
2. Colorado
3. San Jose
4. Vancouver
5. Calgary
6. Nashville *
7. Dallas *
8. St Louis
* Differ with the NHL
First Round pairings:
Detroit - St Louis
Colorado - Dallas *
San Jose - Nashville *
Vancouver - Calgary
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Down at Center Ice
From a letter to friend Bill A.
And, as to "StatBoni" itself, my "man on the inside", Chip tells me there
are other plans afoot to _fix_ the ranking system: e.g.
What they (the NHL) are trying to do is break the hold that "The Trap",
a defensive strategy employed at center ice has on the game. Since the
NJ Devils won the Cup in '95 with this style, the scores have been going
down, and according to league managment, so is fan interest. An "obvious"
solution is to make the rink wider and deeper, making it harder to
employ some of the tactics. But this solution digs into the big revenue seats.
First blush; some people have figured out that if you increase the rink area
you increase the perimeter, _and_ the number of seats at rink-side. Big
problem, is that many/most of the big revenue teams (read MSG, NY Rangers)
are in buildings that all you can do is take out seats from sold-out
performances. Why would you do that?
So that is the nature of the current impasse. Other tinkering is about
to happen: the goal tender can't go behind the net to play the puck.
< DIG >
This idea is so lame, if the NHL ruling were applied to chess, it would
be equivalent to saying "The King may move, but not capture!" You'd
have to change the name of the game from Chess to something like
"Neutered", or "Queens".
< /DIG >
And, as to "StatBoni" itself, my "man on the inside", Chip tells me there
are other plans afoot to _fix_ the ranking system: e.g.
regulation win = 3
ot win = 2
ot tie, loss = 1
What they (the NHL) are trying to do is break the hold that "The Trap",
a defensive strategy employed at center ice has on the game. Since the
NJ Devils won the Cup in '95 with this style, the scores have been going
down, and according to league managment, so is fan interest. An "obvious"
solution is to make the rink wider and deeper, making it harder to
employ some of the tactics. But this solution digs into the big revenue seats.
First blush; some people have figured out that if you increase the rink area
you increase the perimeter, _and_ the number of seats at rink-side. Big
problem, is that many/most of the big revenue teams (read MSG, NY Rangers)
are in buildings that all you can do is take out seats from sold-out
performances. Why would you do that?
So that is the nature of the current impasse. Other tinkering is about
to happen: the goal tender can't go behind the net to play the puck.
< DIG >
This idea is so lame, if the NHL ruling were applied to chess, it would
be equivalent to saying "The King may move, but not capture!" You'd
have to change the name of the game from Chess to something like
"Neutered", or "Queens".
< /DIG >
Friday, February 13, 2004
Almost On Line
Ok, you tryschediciphobians (check the spelling on that, Clyde), your StatBoni Editor is taking off the weekend. So ..., the hoped-for repair is not yet complete. What you see here is Friday afternoon's standings. The _plan_ is to make them "up-to-the-minute", not requiring you editor's manual intervention. Becuase of some as-yet-undected differences in the development and on-line versions of my publishing software, we publish by a "batch" process, vs an on-line publication. With an on-line publication, you'd see identical stats on NHL.com and StatBoni, as we'd be looking at their live data. While closer to the goal, the bisquit ain't in the basket yet. Stay tuned!!
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Welcome to the StatBoni Room.
This 'blog is dedicated to the simple proposition the National Hockey League could use a better ranking system. While total points is useful, it under-represents the well-appreciated "games in hand" for the team with more to play and ground to make up. The associated web page and mailing list make it easy for you to participate.
Join the Fun. Shake up the NHL (as if it needs more trouble right now!)
This 'blog is dedicated to the simple proposition the National Hockey League could use a better ranking system. While total points is useful, it under-represents the well-appreciated "games in hand" for the team with more to play and ground to make up. The associated web page and mailing list make it easy for you to participate.
Join the Fun. Shake up the NHL (as if it needs more trouble right now!)
