A Good Year for the Outlaw

A friend asked me today if this year’s edition of the Peoria Rivermen were a good hockey team? I said they were. He asked if they were over .500, I said “yes and no”. He was confused. Moreso than normal.  

So, are the Rivermen over .500 or not? Depends on how you look at it. Peoria’s record is 18-11-3-4. That’s the new hockey math. The first two numbers are self-explanatory and suggest the Rivs are way over .500. But the last two numbers (which are one too many) show you “overtime losses” and “shootout losses”.

Technically, the Rivermen have won 18 games…and lost 18 games. However, since they took seven of those 18 losses into overtime, games that used to show up as “ties” in the standings, the Rivermen have scored 43 points out of a possible 72, for a “points scoring percentage” of .597. So, for the purpose of promoting the team from the “glass half full” side, it is logical and acceptable to say the team is “over .500″.

But if one prefers half empty, and takes simply wins v. losses, the team is playing exactly .500 hockey.

It’s semantics, and it’s hockey math. Oh, and it’s the whole four-numbers thing in the standings is completely unnecessary. Peoria gets two points for wins, no points for regulation losses (second column), one point for overtime losses (column three) and one point for shootout losses (column four). So it doesn’t make any difference, and there doesn’t need to be a fourth column. A loss is a loss, eh? The Rivs are 18-11-7. There. That makes a whole lot more sense.