Points Blown Standings (41 Games)
What's the Kings' point pace at the halfway point of the season and should we be worried?
The Los Angeles Kings have now reached the exact midpoint of their season and probably won't make any significant jumps in the standings given how tight the playoff race in the Pacific Division is.
What is Points Blown?
For those of you who don't know, Points-Blown was created by Kings fan and former Jewels From the Crown moderator Quisp as a means of better understanding the standings by controlling for differences in games played. Here's how Quisp described the system in a post on his website, McSorley's Stick.
Points-blown refers to the number of points a team could have earned, but did not. They are points-squandered. You get two PBs for a loss, and one PB for an OT/SOL. The lower your total, the better. Like golf. Or cholesterol.
Why is this a handy way to look at the standings, and not just a confusing pain in the ass? Well, maybe it’s not. Your mileage may vary, but for me it’s like this: W% is an excellent indicator of a team’s record, but I find it difficult to conceptualize the difference between (for example), a .575 team and a .593 team. "All we need is another 18/1000s of a [something or other] and we’ll be tied! Go team!"
But just looking at points doesn’t work either, because the schedule is wacky and teams have different numbers of games-played. Anaheim and Chicago at one point had played 5 or 6 more games than everyone else. That skews the standings. And I hate giving Anaheim any credit.
And now for the full breakdown of LA's points blown, now including #fancystats! As a note: Raw CF% is just the total corsi for percentages, same with fenwick for percentage. Sc.Ad CF/FF% are score adjusted corsi and fenwick for percentages - so basically, were the Kings only possessing the puck because they were behind or did they do a good job of actually maintaining their lead?
All numbers are at ES and come courtesy of Natural Stat Trick (raw CF/FF) and WAR (score adjusted CF/FF).
As you can see, the Kings are actually not a bad team. It's not time to push the panic button, but rather, maintain patience and remember that they will eventually get through this gawd-awful month. It seems like they've really turned their (possession) game around. Just eight points in their next seven games puts them back on pace for 100 points.
Do you like the addition of corsi stats and do you want to see them in the next installment of Points Blown?
Yes, they're great. Keep them for the next one! | 17 |
No, I don't care about them at all. Take them out next time. | 6 |
I have no preference. | 4 |
I want to see different stats (please explain in the comments). | 0 |
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