Tag: USHL

It’s a new week coming up so it’s time to revisit the USHL standings. Omaha had a damn fine week–knocking off Sioux Falls with a five goal second period. Figures that I was so sick that day I couldn’t manage 15 feet from the nearest sewer-connected portal so ended up missing what might possibly be the best Lancers showing all season.

Lincoln didn’t fare as well, winning two of three on the week. They lose a game-in-hand on Sioux Falls but with both Lincoln and Omaha playing three last week, the Stars still have two in hand on the Lancers.

By virtue of the fine showing, the Lancers pick up a place in the points standings on Lincoln. The unadjusted standings look like this:

TEAM	GP	W	L	OL	TP
Sioux Falls	41	29	10	2	60
Fargo	41	26	13	5	53
Waterloo	42	25	17	0	53
Omaha	42	25	17	0	50
Lincoln	40	23	14	3	49
Tri-Town	41	18	19	4	40
Des Moines	43	19	22	2	40
Sioux City	40	8	22	10	26

Looking over the table after two weeks, we also see Des Moines being overtaken by Tri-Town. The Good Life trophy participants are 4-5-6 in the standings, which makes for a more entertaining introductory season for the trophy at least. Also funny how the victories are pretty lopsided between them. Omaha pwns Lincoln who pwns Tri-Town who pwns Omaha.

But I digress. The whole point of this exercise is to weigh games-in-hand into the standings to give a better picture of how the playoff race is shaking out. If we count games in hand as +.5 games, an OT loss as -.5, wins as +1 and losses as -1 we get the following table:

TEAM	GP	W	L	OL	GB	Playoffs
Sioux Falls	41	29	10	2
Waterloo	41	26	14	1	-3.5
Fargo	42	24	13	5	-4
Lincoln	40	23	14	3	-5
Omaha	42	25	17	0	-5.5	-0.5
Tri-Town	41	18	19	4	-10	-5
Des Moines	43	19	22	2	-11	-6
Sioux City	40	8	22	10	-16.5	-11.5

Looking here, Omaha still hasn’t quite pushed Lincoln out of the playoff picture. Also noteworthy, Sioux Falls picks up a game on most of the league in the last two weeks. Coming up, both Omaha and Lincoln have relatively easy matchups visiting Des Moines and hosting Tri-Town respectively before meeting each other for the Battles on Ice. Yours truly will be in attendance at Teh Battlez and, if all goes according to plan, highly inebriated.

See you there!

If you looked at the current USHL Standing in the West (prior to games played tonight) you’d see this:

TEAM	GP	W	L	OL	TP
Sioux Falls	34	25	8	1	51
Fargo	36	21	10	5	47
Waterloo	35	22	13	0	44
Lincoln	33	20	10	3	43
Omaha	35	19	16	0	38
Des Moines	37	18	18	1	37
Tri-Town	35	15	16	4	34
Sioux City	34	6	20	8	20

And you’d see Lincoln sits in fourth place, on the cusp of elimination from post season play. But that really doesn’t paint an accurate picture of the season so far. For whatever reason, Lincoln has a game in hand against the division leader, two against the team immediately above them in the standings, and a whopping three games in hand against Fargo.

I, for one, prefer the baseball way of ranking teams in the midst of a season, taking games in hand into consideration instead of just throwing out the points totals. If we modify hockey standings to score as follows:

• Loss: -1 game in the standings
• Overtime Loss: -0.5 games in the standings
• Win–overtime or otherwise: +1 game in the standings

and apply it to the current USHL West we get a much more appealing picture (because, hey, Stars fan!).

TEAM	GP	W	L	OL	GB	Playoffs
Sioux Falls	34	25	8	1
Fargo	36	21	10	5	-3
Lincoln	33	20	10	3	-3
Waterloo	35	22	13	0	-4
Omaha	35	19	16	0	-7	-3
Des Moines	37	18	18	1	-8.5	-4.5
Tri-Town	35	15	16	4	-9.5	-5.5
Sioux City	34	6	20	8	-15.5	-12.5

See, games in hand are actually important! In one view Lincoln is on the verge of not making the playoffs. In the other they’re tied for having home ice advantage in the first round. It is kind of a big deal.

Now, if Lincoln fritters them away, well…that’s just not going to happen. Go Stars!