PowerPlay Magazine

(The following article was published by Dino Barnabé in French on 2/13/15.  I decided to translate it to English for your viewing pleasure.)

Just like what has recently been undertaken by Canucks357 to assess the skills of hockey players, I decided to examine the results of hockey games and the impact of different strategies on the chance of winning.

Everyone knows the circle of winning strategies. It is easily found on the web. I do not need to give you the link ... Google is your friend! But the article is a few years old. It is time to revisit it correctness, just to see if the findings of the time still hold water and to validate whether this circle strategy is still relevant since PPM can change game strategies when it wishes.

Of course, for that to become the hot topic at upcoming discussions, it would be nice to explore how the choice of strategies and benefits and disadvantages of penalties impact the number of goals for or against. But that's for later. First of all, let's revisit our classic!

The methodology of this article series revolves around the recovery of the result of 4806 hockey games played during season 19. All these games were played in league I.1, and in the best country in the world as ranked by World PPM. The objective here is to obtain reliable statistics and no significant changes due to imbalances between the teams. Normally, in division I.1, all teams are led by experienced managers who know what they are doing. There are also very few teams without managers. Thus removing some important factors and variability.

So have I got your attention? Are you ready for the revelation of the century?

Unfortunately, it will take a while! I am only at my first analysis and I'm going to need a little time to tweak everything. However, that said, I can give you some basic information about the games played in season 19. I hope it will make you excited and awaiting the next article in the series.

Drum roll! Here are the first results:

Average attendance per game: 14753 persons

Average Home Goals: 3.9763 goals per game

Avg goals abroad: 3.0641 goals per game

Assessment of ice advantage: 0.9122 goals more for the home team, or 29.77% more than for the visiting team.

Games requiring overtime: 9.72%

Games won by a single goal: 23.08%

Games won by two goals: 20.06%

Games won by three goals or more: 56.87%

Advantage noted! This is the end of the first article. As you can see, there is already a great revelation, playing at home gives an advantage of almost a goal a game ... interesting, right?

Do not hesitate to let me know in the comments what statistics or which game situations you would like me to explore. I reserve full of interesting things for you, but your suggestions are always welcome.

Sincerely,

Dino

(Translated by Cold Mountain Rebel)