Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
I think production from any forward not ranked 1-6 would work.
That as a total would take into account injuries and movement in and out of the lineup.
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Yes, I think this is a reasonable way to look at depth. So that's what I did. The results were interesting, but I think, in the end, were less correlated to team success than the top 6 numbers were. But I think it is important to consider both together.
The average depth points were 161.3 (calculated as the total points of all forwards that were not included in the top 6 numbers)
The Flames had 172, which ranked them 10th. (10th is great, IMO, considering the strength of the top 6).
TBL was 2nd! along with being 1st for the top 6, which speaks to just how strong that team was.
As for correlation to winning, and to playoff success, 3 of the top 10 teams didn't make the playoffs. STL finished T-4th, as did SJS, which would speak to the importance of depth, however, CAR was 17th, and BOS was 28th! So it's difficult to draw any conclusions there.
The biggest shocker was who was #1. Take a guess. I will give you a moment to think about it. Wrong, think again. Still wrong.
The top team in the league for depth - by a fairly significant margin! - was OTT. Yes, seriously. They were the only team to total more than 200, at 205, which was a full two standard deviations above the mean.
Now guess who was worst... Correct, too easy. The Oilers were dead last, of course, but what is amazing is just
how bad they actually were - they weren't just last, there was 2nd last (DAL and BUF were tied for 2nd last with 129 points), then there was 50 feet of garbage, and then the Oilers. EDM was 32 POINTS BELOW 2ND LAST!!! 32 ####ing points. They were the only team under 100 points, and it wasn't close.
Statistically, the Oilers were 2.84 stdev below the average. To put that into perspective, the likelihood, (based on the ridiculously small sample size of one year) of a team being as inept as the Oilers were last year, is approximately 0.2%*, or 1 in 500. LOL.
Back to the Flames, I think the production from the depth suggests that the team was NOT top heavy, they were not a one-line (or one and 1/3 line) team. Their depth wasn't elite, but it was above average. And, combined with an elite top 6, shows why the Flames were 2nd overall last year (plus the depth of the blueline of course)
* the proper rigors of statistical analysis have not been met here, this is just for fun
