What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

NHL map

Here’s an interesting map from cbssports.com showing where NHL teams are located in North America.  This map really highlights  the ridiculous distances that the west coast/Western Conference teams are from each other, compared to the east coast/Eastern Conference teams.   While this isn’t really news for NHL fans, the map does definitely emphasize the point.  I thought it was an unique perspective on the NHL’s teams, especially in light of the playoffs going on right now.  Just look at the huge distances that need to be travelled in the Vancouver vs. St. Louis series and the Chicago vs. Calgary one!

The two conferences are uneven in more than just travel, but also in performance over the last decade.  I came across another blog post a couple months ago that discussed team travel and how that impacts the Western and Eastern Conferences:

It is important to keep in mind how much better the West Conference is than the East Conference.  Tyler Dellow has a post that shows how this has been true over the last several years.  He shows the winning percentage of the west in games against the east since 1999/2000 and shows that the West Conference has a significant winning record every year except 2003/04.  This season, the west has a .559 record (treating games that are tied after 60 minutes as ties).  That is the highest winning percentage for the west since 1999/2000.  Western dominance is not going away.  If anything it is getting bigger. 

When you juxtapose the map with the performance of the Western Conference versus the Eastern one, the result might raise some eyebrows.  The blog post I quote above theorizes why the Western teams, with their more burdensome travel, actually perform better than Eastern teams:

I think the reason is travel.  West teams have to travel significantly more than east ones do.  That shows up in the standings.  West teams that are as good as east teams will have worse records.  This will force moves to be made to strengthen the western teams.  The eastern team can be more complacent because they have a stronger record than they should have and will be less likely to improve.  If you transplanted the New York Rangers or the Philadelphia Flyers to the west, they probably would not be good enough for playoffs, but in the east they should make them handily.  Thus the western equivalent of such a team is pushed to improve while the eastern version can be complacent as they feel they are already “good enough”.

This is a great example of taking a challenge and turning it into something that makes you stronger.

Singh10.

Parity? Draw your own conclusions.

I did a quick calculation of average goals scored per game for each team in Silver B, from preseason through first round of the playoffs:

Winter 2008-2009, Preseason through Round 1 of the Playoffs

This is based on Skatetown’s stats. If you rank by goals scored, it closely matches how the teams finished in the regular season, except that Norcal Crossover A, who actually finished above the Misfits, scored fewer goals per game on average. 

Also, from Yo MaMa up to Puck Hogs, the increase in goals scored per game happens in increments of about half a goal as you move up.  The increase widens for the Flying Wizards and Pints.  The average scored across the league (the gray dotted line in the chart) is 3.3 goals per game.

Singh10.

Monday Musings: Dusting off

I know it’s Wednesday, but these are still my musings, so you do the math.

We lost for the second time in a row on Sunday, this time to the Phantoms, who according to Captain Phantom are “not the reigning champions for no reason“.  Two losses in a row is a new situation for us, because when we’ve lost before, we bounced back the next week with a win.  Our first loss was against the Pirates (and yes, I saw that only two people signed my petition – keep them in Bronze at your own peril, foolish people!).

What also happened for the second time in a row was a game official telling me after the game that we didn’t look like our normal selves.  This is very telling, because we had all the same people that we normally do.  And, hearing it for the second time in a row is frustrating for me.  There is something mental going on (or not going on) in our team game and we need to get to the bottom of it before the playoffs start. 

This is not to take anything from the Pirates or the Phantoms, because they deserved their wins.  I’m not saying that had we played better that we would have won either of those games.  What I am saying though is that it’s hard to accept losing when you didn’t put your best on the ice, and we didn’t.

Monday Musings: Houston, we have parity

Could we have parity in Bronze this season?

Last season, there were three teams at the top: the Volcanoes, Phantoms, and us:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the top three teams, there was a nine point gap in the standings. 

Granted there are still blowouts, but so far this season more games seem closer.  The Pints appear to be on the rise.  The Volcanoes edged by us for the first time last week, and we scraped by the Ice Dawgs last night.  The Flyers beat the Phantoms and are tied with us in second place now.  It’ll have taken six weeks before the standings settle a bit. 

We play to win, but it’s more fun when there’s competition.  So far this season we’ve had a lot more of the latter and it has definitely made for more satisfying hockey. 

Singh 10.