Running with Gregg's idea

....or more accurately, Bill Motiuk's idea. On Gregg Drinnan's blog today, he details Motiuk's idea for a different points system for wins and losses in hockey, graded on whether the game was decided in regulation, overtime, or a shootout. If you haven't read the article already, read it now before reading the rest of this post because you won't understand the rest of this post otherwise.

What I've done is re-worked the current WHL standings to use Motiuk's proposed system, just to see how things would be different. First, the current standings the way the WHL does it now:

(I've ranked the teams by win% in order to eliminate variance in games played)

		GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	PTS	Win %
1	Vancouver Giants	19	15	1	0	3	33	0.868
2	Calgary Hitmen	24	19	4	1	0	39	0.812
3	Spokane Chiefs	20	13	4	0	3	29	0.725
4	Tri-City Americans	21	14	5	0	2	30	0.714
5	Saskatoon Blades	22	15	6	1	0	31	0.705
6	Swift Current Broncos	22	14	8	0	0	28	0.636
7	Brandon Wheat Kings	20	12	7	1	0	25	0.625
7	Regina Pats	24	13	7	1	3	30	0.625
9	Medicine Hat Tigers	22	11	7	2	2	26	0.591
10	Kelowna Rockets	21	12	9	0	0	24	0.571
11	Everett Silvertips	21	10	8	3	0	23	0.548
12	Kootenay Ice	24	10	9	2	3	25	0.521
13	Prince Albert Raiders	25	13	12	0	0	26	0.520
14	Kamloops Blazers	23	10	10	0	3	23	0.500
15	Lethbridge Hurricanes	20	9	10	0	1	19	0.475
16	Edmonton Oil Kings	24	9	12	1	2	21	0.438
17	Prince George Cougars	22	9	12	0	1	19	0.432
18	Chilliwack Bruins	21	7	11	1	2	17	0.405
18	Seattle Thunderbirds	21	7	11	1	2	17	0.405
20	Red Deer Rebels	25	7	13	0	5	19	0.380
21	Moose Jaw Warriors	20	6	13	0	1	13	0.325
22	Portland Winter Hawks	19	5	14	0	0	10	0.263

And now, the way the standings would look using Motiuk's idea:

		GP	W	OTW	SOW	L	PTS	Win %	Shift
1	Vancouver Giants	19	15	0	0	4	45	0.789	0
2	Calgary Hitmen	24	17	0	2	5	53	0.736	0
3	Saskatoon Blades	22	12	2	1	7	41	0.621	2
4	Spokane Chiefs	20	12	0	1	7	37	0.617	-1
5	Swift Current Broncos	22	12	1	1	8	39	0.591	1
6	Kelowna Rockets	21	12	0	0	9	36	0.571	4
7	Tri-City Americans	21	9	2	3	7	34	0.540	-3
8	Brandon Wheat Kings	20	10	0	2	8	32	0.533	-1
9	Regina Pats	24	11	0	2	11	35	0.486	-2
10	Medicine Hat Tigers	22	10	0	1	11	31	0.470	-1
11	Everett Silvertips	21	8	0	2	11	26	0.413	0
12	Prince Albert Raiders	25	7	3	3	12	30	0.400	1
12	Lethbridge Hurricanes	20	7	1	1	11	24	0.400	2
14	Kamloops Blazers	23	8	1	1	13	27	0.391	0
15	Prince George Cougars	22	7	1	1	13	24	0.364	2
16	Edmonton Oil Kings	24	7	1	1	15	24	0.333	0
16	Kootenay Ice	24	7	0	3	14	24	0.333	-4
18	Seattle Thunderbirds	21	5	0	2	14	17	0.270	0
19	Moose Jaw Warriors	20	5	0	1	14	16	0.267	2
20	Portland Winter Hawks	19	4	1	0	14	14	0.246	2
21	Chilliwack Bruins	21	4	0	3	14	15	0.238	-3
22	Red Deer Rebels	25	4	1	2	18	16	0.213	-2

The last column, "Shift", is the number of places up or down in the overall standings that the team would move from their current position if Motiuk's system was used. So the biggest beneficiary of this system would be Kelowna, who are 4 positions better using this method, while the biggest drop is Kootenay, who drop four places.

A quick explanation about the winning % calculation too since you can see the winning percentage is different in the second method. I have calculated winning % in Motiuk's method as a "points percentage", the same as it is in the current standings. It's not a reflection on the number of games a team actually wins, but rather the percentage of possible points they actually get. Each game is worth three points maximum so a team that has played 20 games could have a maximum of 60 points. Thus, they would need 30 points to be a .500 team and so on.

I'm off to recalculate last year's final standings now using this method. I'll post those results later this afternoon when I'm done.

UPDATE: I've redone last year's final standings using Motiuk's idea...

Last year's final standings the way the WHL counts it up:

		GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	PTS	Win %
1	Tri-City Americans	72	52	16	2	2	108	0.750
2	Spokane Chiefs	72	50	15	1	6	107	0.743
3	Vancouver Giants	72	49	15	2	6	106	0.736
4	Calgary Hitmen	72	47	20	1	4	99	0.688
5	Lethbridge Hurricanes	72	45	21	2	4	96	0.667
6	Regina Pats	72	44	22	4	2	94	0.653
7	Medicine Hat Tigers	72	43	22	5	2	93	0.646
8	Kootenay Ice	72	42	22	5	3	92	0.639
9	Seattle Thunderbirds	72	42	23	5	2	91	0.632
10	Brandon Wheat Kings	72	42	24	3	3	90	0.625
11	Swift Current Broncos	72	41	24	1	6	89	0.618
12	Moose Jaw Warriors	72	37	21	6	8	88	0.611
13	Kelowna Rockets	72	38	26	2	6	84	0.583
14	Everett Silvertips	72	39	30	0	3	81	0.562
15	Saskatoon Blades	72	29	34	3	6	67	0.465
16	Chilliwack Bruins	72	28	35	4	5	65	0.451
17	Kamloops Blazers	72	27	41	2	2	58	0.403
18	Prince Albert Raiders	72	26	41	3	2	57	0.396
19	Edmonton Oil Kings	72	22	39	4	7	55	0.382
20	Prince George Cougars	72	20	48	1	3	44	0.306
21	Red Deer Rebels	72	18	47	4	3	43	0.299
22	Portland Winter Hawks	72	11	58	2	1	25	0.174

And the final standings they way they would be using Motiuk's system:

		GP	W	OTW	SOW	L	PTS	Win %	Shift
1	Vancouver Giants	72	44	3	2	23	140	0.648	2
2	Spokane Chiefs	72	44	1	5	22	139	0.644	0
3	Tri-City Americans	72	41	5	6	20	139	0.644	-2
4	Calgary Hitmen	72	41	3	3	25	132	0.611	0
5	Lethbridge Hurricanes	72	38	2	5	27	123	0.569	0
6	Seattle Thunderbirds	72	39	1	2	30	121	0.560	3
7	Medicine Hat Tigers	72	35	5	3	29	118	0.546	0
8	Brandon Wheat Kings	72	37	1	4	30	117	0.542	2
9	Regina Pats	72	32	5	7	28	113	0.523	-3
10	Kootenay Ice	72	31	6	5	30	110	0.509	-2
11	Swift Current Broncos	72	30	7	4	31	108	0.500	0
12	Everett Silvertips	72	29	6	4	33	103	0.477	2
13	Kelowna Rockets	72	29	4	5	34	100	0.463	0
14	Moose Jaw Warriors	72	28	4	5	35	97	0.449	-2
15	Saskatoon Blades	72	23	3	3	43	78	0.361	0
16	Chilliwack Bruins	72	23	1	4	44	75	0.347	0
17	Kamloops Blazers	72	22	1	4	45	72	0.333	0
17	Prince Albert Raiders	72	22	2	2	46	72	0.333	1
19	Edmonton Oil Kings	72	18	0	4	50	58	0.269	0
20	Prince George Cougars	72	17	1	2	52	55	0.255	0
21	Red Deer Rebels	72	12	1	5	54	43	0.199	0
22	Portland Winter Hawks	72	9	0	2	61	29	0.134	0

Seattle would gain the most, being three positions higher in the standings. Regina would lose the most, being three positions lower. Tri-City would not have been first overall, they would have been third and Vancouver would have been #1.

But would any of the playoff matchups last year have been affected? As it was we had:

Calgary vs. Moose Jaw
Regina vs. Swift Current
Lethbridge vs. Brandon
Medicine Hat vs. Kootenay
Tri-City vs. Kamloops
Vancouver vs. Chilliwack
Spokane vs. Everett
Seattle vs. Kelowna

With the alternate system, we would have seen:

Calgary vs. Moose Jaw
Brandon vs. Swift Current
Lethbridge vs. Kootenay
Medicine Hat vs. Regina
Vancouver vs. Kamloops
Spokane vs. Chilliwack
Tri-City vs. Kelowna
Seattle vs. Everett

So the matchups would have been completely different. Only #1 vs. #8 in the Eastern conference, Calgary vs Moose Jaw, would have remained the same. Most notable is that not only would Regina not have been the #2 seed, they wouldn't even have had home ice advantage in the first round.

An interesting proposal, for sure. Thoughts?