(Re-)Introducing Points-Blown Standings
[Note: This is a Fanpost written by sd_Baby-B, but I'm publishing it in order to get the table working correctly. The fanpost editor doesn't like tables apparently.]
Hello JFTC faithful!
Different readers throughout the season have shared how much they miss having Points-Blown standings to obsess over. 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.
Unfortunately for us Quisp hasn't had the time to update his points-blown standings since November. Fortunately for us the formula is basic algebra, it isn't too difficult to produce a poor person's version of the visually appealing charts Quisp used to produce, and avid JFTC commenter and Kings superfan ilovewhiskey was easily persuaded to post points-blown fanposts for us.
Now, without further ado, introducing the JFTC reader managed Points-Blown Standings!
This will ideally be a community-managed project. Please use the comments to post any questions or offer any suggestions for how to better format the above table. I'm not thinking of this as a long term replacement for Quisp's posts, but as a substitute until he starts blogging again. If anyone else wants to adopt this project and create and manage something fancier than what Google Docs can create, feel free!
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