Short post today, since I caught enough of a breather to finally breakdown the NHL schedule by week, and will feature the breakdowns in our weekly look at the NHL, with the help of Carl Lemelin.
I wanted to keep everything in a central place to limit the need to keep multiple links, bookmarks or references so I’ve integrated a couple of new worksheets to the Back to Back Rested versus Tired google doc, a weekly games totals breakdown and then an individual team home and road breakdown on the following sheet.
There are also two additional tabs that require an explanation. The tabs are called By League and By Team, and they represent teams in the first column, as rested opponents on the second night of a B2B. The corresponding number in accordance to the teams at the top are the number of times the team played there the night before.
For example, take the Calgary Flames in the By League tab. They have four games as the rested team, playing a team that played Edmonton (4) and Vancouver (4) for a distinct advantage in that division. Eight games as a rested opponents while a divisional rival beat up the opponent the previous night then traveled is a distinct advantage.
In the By Division tab, I've broken that down to isolate the number of times this advantage for the teams in the first column occurs within the division.
The Central division leads in this category with 20 overall occurences, while the Flames have the single season high with eight games. Nashville has a clear disadvantage here, as does the Edmonton Oilers teeing up opponents for their divisional rivals six times, with the benefit only once.
Tampa Bay and Florida have this similar ration in the Southeast division the Ducks set up teams for the Stanley Cup Champions.
I’ve been tweeting out records of the Rested versus Tired teams and the matchups featuring the teams playing on that day. I may end up posting an up to date spreadsheet that will isolate these types of games, but I haven’t gotten around to finding a workable solution or to automate the process.
This is an example from last night (Jan 28, 2013). An interesting note in seeing the Canucks salvage two points with two shootout losses as the tired team. Think about today’s match up with the Blue Jackets playing the Wild (and Dallas playing Detroit), yet travel issues have made the process even more difficult as per the Puck-Rakers Blog.
The Blue Jackets will face a taxing Tuesday. Poor weather in Minnesota delayed their postgame flight and they are not scheduled to leave until 11 a.m. They will play the Wild at 8 p.m. The Stars are also grounded. They will enjoy same-day travel before playing the Red Wings in Detroit.
Scheduling and travel matter.
This may become a more visible process for more accessible data for you, the readers, I just have to figure out a way to make it an easier overall process or some way to automate it.
Stay tuned.
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