Deep Dive #2 - Maine Timber wins! - Printable Version +- Simulation Hockey League (https://simulationhockey.com) +-- Forum: League Media (https://simulationhockey.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=610) +--- Forum: Deep Dive (https://simulationhockey.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=432) +---- Forum: Archives (https://simulationhockey.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=547) +---- Thread: Deep Dive #2 - Maine Timber wins! (/showthread.php?tid=138644)

Deep Dive #2 - Maine Timber wins! - Brenadyr - 09-01-2024       Maine Timber wins! A phrase many of us in the SMJHL are familiar with as Maine Timber has been absolutely dominating this season, at the time of writing they have played 51 games and won 40 of them. A very impressive record. But this season is not the only one that Maine Timber has done well in. Since season 70 at least, Maine Timber has done exceptionally well, placing in the top 4 in the regular season and playoffs of each season. In this deep dive we are going to examine some of the reasons why Maine Timber is doing so well.       My initial thoughts on why Maine Timber was doing so well was in regards to their players with 425 TPE. After all, the most experienced players on a team are going to contribute the most. So I went through the rosters of every team from seasons 70 to 77 to find the average number of 425 TPE players per team and made this graph.       This is the average number of players with between 420-425 TPE (this was to give some wiggle room for the builds that do not quite hit 425 nicely.) As we can see, Maine does indeed have the highest number of average players at 425 TPE. However, averages are not everything. The Kelowna Knights and Carolina Kraken are right behind Maine Timber, yet they do not have the same level of success. So there must be something else. I then thought, what are the highest number and lowest number of 425 TPE players the teams have in any season? So I made those two graphs.       We can see from these two graphs that some teams, specifically the Kelowna Knights and Quebec City Citadelles do have more 425 players at some point in at least one of the seasons. The Vancouver Whalers also match Maine Timber’s peak player count. However, Maine Timber never dropped below 7 players at 425 TPE, with the runner up being the Carolina Kraken at 6 players at their lowest. This gives Maine Timber a very consistent pool of experience to use. They are able to ensure in most seasons that most positions, the Right Wing, Left Wing, Right Defense, Left Defense, and Center all have at least one 425 TPE player to fill the position. Naturally every team tries to ensure this but Maine Timber is once again the most consistent at it. But once again the players are not the only contributing factor. While going through the seasons to gather this data, there were quite a few occasions where a team would have a very large number of 425 TPE players, sometimes more than any other team during that season, but they would have, let’s say, an unfortunate season. This can best be illustrated by season 74 Kelowna Knights, who had 12 players at 425 TPE. Despite this they placed 13th overall in the regular season and lost round 1 in the playoffs. From this we gather that the tactics that are employed by the team are immensely important. The GM of Maine Timber is demonstrably very skilled in tactics.       That is all for this analysis, and once again this is only a possible explanation for some of the reasons behind Maine Timber’s success. Have a good one! RE: Deep Dive #2 - Maine Timber wins! - chetib - 09-07-2024 Approved @Brenadyr @CptSquall