SuperMario wroteCOLON
1. It lowers variance. A Top 3 team in the league could have its stats dispersed week by week in such a way that its weekly record shows 10-6-5 while it would actually be a a Top 3 team when you count each category as a win. You want there to be more "events" so as to lower variance. E.g. flipping a coin 21 times versus could have high variance and Tails may come up 16 times. But flipping it 21 (game weeks) x 16 (categories) would likely result in a 50-50 split between heads and tails based on the sample size.
you've crossed more variance with more useful variance. By crossing levels of comparison we've made a measure that has tons of noise and wasted 'magnitude' added.
more data would be removing the h2h component, totalling each category over the years, compressing into a single score using all available data (measured in a meaningful way in this case, and valid for comparison).It would be boring.
Right now
LAK VS TOR with like 33 vs 33 points, is a tie, 1/2 category each
PHX vs TBL has me up 25 vs 22, thats 1 category for me
Our current system says, that I earned more points that either of them, because we compare category wins (not the data measured).
By repeating this 16 times, we've making a ton of false comparisons, because our standings are not *just* measured against the h2h matchup.
Our schedule is made to be as comparable as our divisional partners as possible, but that doesn't mean it suddenly makes this cross-level data more meaningful, or a better measure of variance between teams.
SuperMario wroteCOLON
2. Magnitude matters. It matters how much you beat each team by. In terms of difficulty, each team has a fairly equal schedule compared to other team's in its conference. So if one team accumulates more category wins over the course of a season, it implies that said team is better than other teams who did not accumulate as many wins. This also matters for teams at the bottom. Think about it for a second. Right now DET and DAL are 2-14-0 on the season. CAR is next at 3-13-0. But CAR has 38 more points that DET. If we are going to do a lottery, the worst teams should get the highest odds at the top pick. Another example? DAL's 2-14-0 record still has it with more points than CAR with a 3-13-0 record. You will see these discrepancies everywhere.
magnitude matters [in a win] ? why? how is that an accurate comparison between teams? repeating it again certainly doesn't make it true.
Our schedules within divisions are most similar - as in we face the same teams but (obviously) during different weeks. As you always point out, teams change a lot over the season. Facing a team without a goalie gives you 6 points, these category win points are than compared to tight goalie battles (say a split) and you're saying this is a good comparison. Trying to say it's accurately measured (meaningful) variance. Your examples do not support what you are saying they do.
Typically, winning more categories will win you more weeks. However, it's all too common that Big Wins have more impact than multiple wins. Facing a team that flops, is tanking, should not have a bigger impact on your standing in the season than a normal win.
COL is 12-3-1 (w/292) and MIN is 9-6-1 (w/304), COL also beat MIN (10-6). But you are saying that Hong's 13-2-1 Win over Vancouver, 13-2-1 over PHX, when Bryma lost to SJS (7-9) and LAK (4-11-1) is a fair comparison. I'm not saying ignore the categories won, it would make sense for that to be the first tie-breaker, and/or the measure for home-ice, but to have more value on these extreme scores (that don't even accurately measure dominance, can explain that later if needed) than on actually winning the head to head match ups, is a glaring error to me.
over those 3 weeks, MIN has 66 points, COL has 43 for a 23 point spread. In a W-L-T system it would be COL 2pts, MIN 4 points, for a 2 point spread. FWIW I didn't even have to hunt to find these glaring examples. Fairly sure FLA/OTT would show the same.
To discuss 'our schedules make this comparison more fair' - point:
COL VS VAN: 7-7-2, vs: PHX 10-5-1
MIN vs LAK (1st): 5-7-2, vs SJS: 10-6-1
meaning in the 5 weeks of same opponents, COL is 2-1-2, MIN 3-2-0, COL with 5pts, MIN with 6. Our system says Hong has a 19 point lead (99 vs 80). Very easy to close a 1pt gap in a W-L-T system (in fact he does close it and would surpass with 25pts for COL, 19 for MIN) however in our system despite more wins in the other weeks, a 12 point gap still exists. we've actually said that despite losing more weeks, his wins were by a bigger margin, and therefore count for more.
SuperMario wroteCOLON
Now there is a counter argument - teams that are built to win 9 of 16 categories weekly can be argued to be just as strong as a team meant to be strong in 16 of 16. Because when they face off, the 9 category team could actually win more often. But we are not trying to weigh which team would win more vs other teams 1 on 1.
Will stop there so things don't compound themselves too far into a circular argument.
We are an h2h league, that means you are being measured against ONE OTHER TEAM at a time. If we aren't doing that, our measure is even less valid.
SuperMario wroteCOLON
We also have a playoff seeding based on records. A 9-6-6 team in the East vs a 9-6-6 team in the West in the final --> who gets home advantage?
that's easy to sort out, same situation could arise in our system with 400 point vs 400 points.
SuperMario wroteCOLON
The last point I will make: Our scoring system makes our weekly schedule, playoffs and standings soooo entertaining. I don't think you guys appreciate how valuable that is. It keeps shit interesting for teams at the top, middle and bottom. A playoff race/division title race is far more likely with a category win system than a W-L-T system. I want to see if a team can squeeze into the playoffs in the last week. I want teams to have that chance. I don't want the 9th place team to give up because its W-L-T record isn't close even though it is close on category wins.
No. All races, presidents trophy, playoff ranking and draft picks are more live in a W-L-T system. More change is possible and likely without an error of magnitudes added. If you value 'interest in standings' that point goes to a W-L-T system.
SuperMario wroteCOLON Let's not screw up a good thing.
It's one of very few undesigned errors/fallacies that we've never fixed. I cannot wait for the season where we do.