Quote:
Originally Posted by bigpete
Haha. Didn't mean to cause a kerfuffle. Just bugs me that's all. Saying a team has a .500 record to me implies that they are even in terms of wins and losses and would be exactly average. .500 would now not be a benchmark to aspire to or measure success by - the extra point makes .600 a more realistic point of measurement for this.
If a team goes 0W - 27L in regulation length games, and 28W - 27L in games going to a shootout, they could say "hey we have a record of above .500"
Even though they did not win a single game in regulation or overtime all year and it would be considered a terrible year and probably the worst in the history of NHL hockey. Just sayin. I realize it is all semantics, but it just kind of bugs me.
|
You are arbitrarily using the word average. Just because there are an equal number of teams above and below you doesn't necessarily mean that you're average. That's the median. The mean, or weighted average, is found by taking the sum of all observations and dividing it by the number of observations.
.500 is a mathematical output. It means you received exactly 50% of the possible outcomes, in this case points. You take the number of points you received and divide it by the number of points you could have possibly received. Right now the Flames have 8 points out of 16 for a .500 record. Their win rate is .375, but their record is still .500. It's the same in baseball when a guy is hitting .300 and his home run rate is .050. These aren't opinions, they are basic mathematical facts.
.500 does not imply anything besides they received 50% of the possible points. You are inferring (not implying as you stated) something that isn't true. It doesn't mean they are an average team, playoff team or anything else. I don't think that any team is trying to end the season with a .500 record. The last team that was able to make the playoffs with a record at or below .500 was the 1998-99 Oilers, and there were only 27 teams in the NHL that year.
Being .500 at the end of the year is not a benchmark to measure success by, in my opinion. The Flames are one of three teams since the lockout to have at least 90 points in ever year since the lockout. On the surface that sounds great, but we all know they haven't made the playoffs since the 2008-09 season. They still managed to have at least a .549 record. A .600 record, as you pointed out, would get you into the playoffs every year. That does not change, in any way, shape or form, the fact that when you received half of the points you possibly could have won, you have a .500 record, no matter what you infer.