I need a whole new post to add some more numbers to this discussion about the Divisions and Conferences.
Overall...
Eastern Division
420-346-30-38, 908 points, win % of .544
Goals For - 2780 Goals Against - 2773
Western Division
339-297-17-31, 726 points, win % of .531
Goals For - 2155 Goals Against - 2162
That would also suggest that the East is slightly better...
Record by Divisions....
U.S. Division
167-150-10-14, 358 points, .525
Goals For - 1038 Goals Against - 1044
BC Division
172-147-7-17, 368 points, .536
Goals For - 1117 Goals Against - 1118
Eastern Division
208-183-13-12, 441 points, .530
Goals For - 1428 Goals Against - 1455
Central Division
212-163-17-26, 467 points, .559
Goals For - 1352 Goals Against - 1318
This would also support the Massey Ratings that the Central is overall the toughest Division and that the US Division is the weakest. What doesn't really mesh is the fact that the Eastern Division doesn't look better than the BC Division and only slightly better than the US Division, yet the Massey Ratings have the East as the 2nd toughest division.
Don't you just love this stuff!!!
5 comments :
Wouldn't the division that has an overall record closest to .500 actually be the tougher division since you play more games within your own division? Doesn't the W-L records of the Central point to one or two top teams beating up on the division patsies? How did the U.S. Division do against the Central and East head-to-head? I know Seattle lost to Calgary and MH but beat the rest. How about vs. the Eastern Division?
Good question... but in a word no.
Take Calgary in the Central... If Calgary goes 11-0 against Red Deer... well Red Deer just went 0-11 against Calgary and overall the Division record is still .500.
So what the records REALLY reflect is how well they have played against the teams outside of their Division.
To the 2nd question. Actually the US Division did just fine against the East. 32-28-4 overall... Seattle was 6-5-1 against Eastern Conference teams.
Hockey is the only sport where the stats you just compiled doesn't completely work. I'll explain in a moment. You were closer to compiling a true stat in the posting before when you penciled out the records of each team versus the east. The absolute best stat would have been to show the US division collectively versus the central and east.
There are two flaws in the stat you posted. The first being that their division has more parity from top to bottom and have a greater chance for overtime than our division. You said that Red Deer would be 0-11 and Calgary would be 11-0 and completely off-set each other, but what about two closer paired teams such as Edmonton and Red Deer. What if they go into overtime in 6 of the 12 matches they play against each other? Lets just say say every home match is won and each team goes 6-3-3-0..... that is NOT a win percentage of .500.
Second, not only do they have a better chance to go to OT because they have more parity, they have MORE total opportunities since the Eastern Conference plays 1008 games since there are 14 teams (western conference only plays 720 games.)
Alas, if you compare one division directly against another, all is fair. They play an equal number of games against each other. I will post the numbers a little later.
THAT is a really excellent comment. Two comments though..
One.. what I labled "Win %" is actually "Point %" so actually it does account for the overtime points... etc. A division with parity will look stronger if they have more overtime games.
The Eastern Conference has had 68 games decided in extra time and the Western has had 48... so yes the East has benefited from about 20 more points... but that is a pretty small amount over the course of about 150 more games.
I will certainly admit that most if not all statistical measures have something wrong with them. They should definitely be considered part of the picture and not the whole thing.
Great points though...
I just typed out a long response and lost it in cyberworld.... ugh.
Here are the results that my blurry eyes could tally:
US is 19-14-1-0 against the central
Central is 15-17-0-2 against the US
US is 13-14-3-0 against the east
East is 17-11-1-1 against the US
When you combine the two:
US is 32-28-4-0 against the eastern conference
Eastern Conference is 32-28-1-3 against the US.
They are statistically EQUAL. Completely equal with 68 points a piece.
For those of you who care about our BC friends:
BC is 31-30-1-0 against the central
Central is 31-28-2-1 against BC
BC is 12-15-3-0 against the east
East is 18-11-1-0 against BC
So, the eastern conference is stronger than the western conference if we factor in the BC guys. Now that I've typed this twice, I'm tired. Night.
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