Power Rankings - I Just Don't Get IT

[CanadaMatt]

http://www.tsn.ca/blues-finish-no-1-...kings-1.256857

What am I missing, how does Boston, Pittsburgh or LA finish higher than the flames in the Final Power Rankings?


I realize that it's not just a re-hashing of the standings but...

LA lost to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary in the last week of the season, before winning a meaningless game against San Jose (that surely counts for naught). Pittsburgh couldn't beat a Midget team down the stretch, and Boston's last week was a train wreck.


Is there a formula for this, biasing recent results over early season results? If so, I'm very confused!

[saillias]

Don't click on it
Don't make threads about it
Don't discuss it with people

Then this awful fad of power rankings will disappear.

[Major Major]

It is not made to be understood or to make any meaningful or rational comment on the game, but rather to drum up clicks from the confounded. They Trolls bro

[Resolute 14]

Because controversy leads to people posting on forums, which leads to more people viewing the webpage, which leads to more ad hits, which leads to more revenue for the site.

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Because controversy leads to people posting on forums, which leads to more people viewing the webpage, which leads to more ad hits, which leads to more revenue for the site.

This. Basically, don't click on them and don't talk about them.

[Itse]

If you have to read power rankings, read ESPN's.

[IgiTang]

Originally Posted by Itse

If you have to read power rankings, read ESPN's.

Uhhh... Sorry but ESPN should stay far away from hockey. In fact, they even know it and do for the most part. Hense the lack of hockey content or/and intelligent reporting on the NHL.

[BloodFetish]

[DJones]

I think power rankings are designed to piss people off.

Click bait at it's finest

[Itse]

Originally Posted by IgiTang

Uhhh... Sorry but ESPN should stay far away from hockey. In fact, they even know it and do for the most part. Hense the lack of hockey content or/and intelligent reporting on the NHL.

Their power rankings are still the best among power rankings.

I know, not much of a competition.

Besides, CP is the best, and gives me about 90% of hockey content I need.
NHL.com and the Flames website fill about 8%.
Maybe 2% is other sites, and half of that is occasionally checking power rankings on ESPN. (As it's a handy way of getting a quick look on what's going in around the league.)

[Hack&Lube]

Power Rankings are not designed to reflect the standings but overall "power" of the team if you take out factors such as luck and timing and overtimes and match-ups, etc.

Actual performance and team positioning in the standings can be widely different from power rankings.

Think of it as a bunch of cars in a race. Some cars will, on paper have more horsepower. However, in an actual race situation, anything can happen and the driving, luck, positioning, accidents, etc. will change how the cars actually finish.

The writer obviously feels that on paper, those teams are still better than the Flames and the final standings are not relevant to his analysis.

[Huntingwhale]

The only power rankings that matter are the NHL standings. Period, end of story.

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

The only power rankings that matter are the NHL standings. Period, end of story.

I disagree (somewhat). For example, do you believe that the Predators are better than the Blackhawks just because they're higher in the standings?

I don't.

[Cflames_12.5]

I like it fuel for the fire. The more bulletin board material the better. I bet it pumps them up.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by codynw

I disagree (somewhat). For example, do you believe that the Predators are better than the Blackhawks just because they're higher in the standings?

I don't.

Yes, everyone gets 82 games, but if you don't that is what the playoffs are for. Even then a team that wins the cup can get lucky by avoiding a better team being eliminated by another opponent.

Power rankings and advanced stats are meant to take luck out of the equation and try and mathematically compare players and teams.

So you can either watch the games, or run a NHL simulator. We all know who remembers the cup champ and who remembers the simulator winner though.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by codynw

I disagree (somewhat). For example, do you believe that the Predators are better than the Blackhawks just because they're higher in the standings?

I don't.

Wait so if the regular standings don't define which team is better in the regular season, what does?

I mean there must be some measure.

[opendoor]

I think Sagarin ratings are generally pretty good for power ranking type things:

http://sagarin.com/sports/nhlsend.htm

They have Calgary at 12th which is probably fair. You can see though that Calgary definitely had trouble against the better teams in the league based on the record vs. top 10 and vs. top 16 columns.

[Northendzone]

power rankings, corsi, fenwick - most of it is just noise and distracts folks from the standings

[JohnnyTitan]

Originally Posted by opendoor

I think Sagarin ratings are generally pretty good for power ranking type things:

http://sagarin.com/sports/nhlsend.htm

^^ THIS ^^

Sagarin year-over-year does the best job of ranking outside of just looking at the standings. For hockey and football (the only sports I check).

It is based on how good the teams are you beat, and how much you beat your opponent by...which intuitively is what we all try to wrap our brains around I suspect.

Example 1:
Flames beat a team 5-1. Oilers beat a team 2-1. (It's just an example!!) ;-)
I would conclude the Flames are better, especially if they keep beating teams by more. Sagarin takes this into account.

Example 2:
Flames beat the Rangers. Oilers beat the Sabres.
I would conclude the Flames are better because they beat the top team in hockey instead of the bottom team in hockey. Sagarin takes this into account.

It takes the entire body of work, so I would argue it does a poor job of picking up trends like the Wild / Sens at the end of this year or the Leafs at the end of last year. But generally, it consistently agrees with my own personal rankings more than any other site. In the NFL, it honestly is a better ranking than the season early on as there are 3-0 teams that are soon found out as frauds and 1-4 teams that are actually really good but have had some close losses to really good teams. (Seahawks this year).

Direct NHL Link: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nhl/sagarin/

JT

[dino7c]

its click bait plain and simple...pick one team (almost always canadian) and rank them lower than they should be and watch the hits flow