Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Reverse Stats - What do they mean?

I have been a big proponent of reverse stats and magic numbers when following the Islanders for a long time. To me, it makes it so much more fun watching the numbers countdown as the season wind down.
The Isles have won 5 and have 10 points. The Rags have 5 points with only 2 victories.
The Isles are in 5th place and the Rags are in 14th place in the conference and, yes, it is still early.
Having 5 points on the Rags may seem pretty impressive but what the stats from your daily newspaper don't show you is what the numbers really mean.
The Rangers can score a total of 153 points since they have "lost" 11 points. What this means for the Islanders is that they have to win 154 points in order to finish ahead of the Rags, in other words the Isles magic number stands at 144 points or 72 wins.
The part that scares me this year is that going into the final 4 days of the season, the Islanders will play the Rangers in a home and home to finish the season. These two games are in reality worth 8 points as winning the 2 points keeps the other team from gaining them also. The final kicker is that the Rags have a final game on Sunday, April 6th versus the Devils.
How ironic would it be if the Rangers are in the same boat as the Isles were this past season?
The last 4 days of the Islanders season versus the Rags are worth 10 points.
So those 5 points we have now don't seem so impressive, do they?

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