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***Aephino*** · 05-30-2023, 01:31 PM

I present two Detroit Falcons seasons, both of which ended in Four Star Cups -- S53 and S65. The null hypothesis may be that S65 is the most dominant SMJHL season of all time, but is it even the best Detroit team of all time?

Let's begin with the regular season. It is important to remember that in the S53 era, there were still only 50 games played per season. The S53 team finished in 1st with 84 points, while the S65 team finished with 120 points. We can calculate that the points per game of the S65 team was higher:

(S53) 84/50 = 1.68 ppg vs (S65) 120/66 = 1.82 ppg

However, if we look at the difference between 1st and 2nd place in the regular season, we can see that the S53 team had a larger gap. In S53, Kelowna finished second with 65 points and in S65, Quebec City finished second with 103 points.

(S53) 65/50 = 1.30 ppg vs (S65) 103/66 = 1.56 ppg

1.68 - 1.30 = 0.38 ppg vs 1.82 - 1.56 = 0.26 ppg

While the S65 team managed more points than S53, they were not as outright dominant over the other teams in the league, as is indicated by the smaller points per game gap. Let's look next into comparison of goals for and against.

Average # of Goals:
S53: 137.3 / 50 = 2.75
S65: 225.9 / 66 = 3.42

Goals For:
S53 Detroit: 204 / 50 = 4.08 -> 4.08 / 2.75 - 1 = 48.4%
S65 Detroit: 330 / 66 = 5.00 -> 5.00 / 3.42 - 1 = 46.2%

Goals Against:
S53 Detroit: 89 / 50 = 1.78 -> 1- 1.78 / 2.75 = 35.3%
S65 Detroit: 137 / 66 = 2.08 -> 1- 2.08 / 3.42 = 39.2%

The S53 team scored 48% more goals than average, compared to 46% for S65. On the other hand, the S65 team conceded 39% fewer goals than average, compared to 35% for S53. One last note would be seeing the variance in all teams, including the worst team in the league.

(S53 Maine) 37/50 = 0.74 ppg vs (S65 Vancouver) 30/66 = 0.45 ppg

Maine and Vancouver were, respectively, the worst teams in the league in S53 and S65. And we see that the ppg is drastically lower in S65. Perhaps the S65 team was beating up on worse teams.

This is my main conclusion for the regular season: S65 may have been overall a better team, but it was not as dominant compared to the rest of the league as S53. Now let's look at playoffs.

S53:
#1 DET 4-0 #8 CAR
#1 DET 4-3 #4 STL
#1 DET 4-2 #2 KEL

S65:
#1 DET 4-1 #8 YUM
#1 DET 4-1 #2 QCC
#1 DET 4-3 #3 NL

While the S65 team was capable of taking down the #2 Quebec City in 5 games, they also let up a game in the first round vs #8 Yukon and were forced to 7 games in the final vs Newfoundland. The S53 team was able to dispose of their first round opponent Carolina in a sweep, and won the finals in only 6 games.

There will be constant discussions of the Detroit S65 team for years to come, rightfully, but S53 was very good and potentially more dominant. Lastly, there is one irrefutable point on why S53 was better.

Edward Williams was on the S53 team, duh.