Index Keeps Teams in Order

The following article appeared in the January 18 issue of the Watertown Daily Times.

By Cap Carey

POTSDAM - Trying to figure out who is really leading the men's ECAC Hockey standings at this stage of the season can be a challenge.

One team, Harvard, has played 13 games, but three other teams have played just eight.

Going strictly by points can be deceiving. Princeton leads that category with 16, one ahead of Quinnipiac and two ahead of Clarkson. But the Tigers and Bobcats have played 12 games, while Clarkson has played just 10.

If you go by win percentage, Clarkson has the edge at a .700 clip.

Another possible way to examine the standings, and one that will accurately predict them by season's end, is a home/road index.

The index is computed by rewarding teams for winning games on the road and punishing them for losing games at home. For example, if a team wins a home game, it gains no points, since it is expected to win at home. If you tie a home game, you lose a point, and if you lose a home game, you lose two points. If you lose on the road there is no penalty, because it's expected. A road tie gains one point, and a road win gains two.

By the time all 22 conference games have been played, the team that leads this index will win the league title and will finish with exactly 22 less points in the index than they earn in the regular season. For example, St. Lawrence University won the league title last year with 33 points. The Saints' home/road index total was a plus-11. Clarkson was second with 30 points, and its home/road index points were plus-eight.

So, using this formula, who leads the conference standings at the moment?

Cornell University is at the top with a plus-six rating, but the Big Red will be hosting SLU and Clarkson this weekend, so Cornell can only lose points. Clarkson and Princeton are each at plus-four. If Clarkson were to knock off the Big Red in Sunday's ESPNU game, that would be enough to cause each team to swap places in the standings.

Colgate is fourth in the index at plus-two, while Quinnipiac is at plus-one. SLU was in last place in the index heading into last weekend at minus-four. But the Saints' sweep at Dartmouth and Harvard moved SLU into a tie for sixth place with Union at zero points.

RPI and Harvard are at minus-two, Yale is at minus-three and Dartmouth and Brown, sit at minus-five in the formula, heading into this weekend's games.