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RainDelay · 03-05-2023, 01:07 PM

Hello everyone, since it's the off season and I'm trying to make some money I decided to take a look at how successful teams have been in the past decade. I use the term decade quite loosely since it hasn't really been 10 real life years but rather 10 years in the sim from Season 60 to Season 69 which recently concluded. The purpose of the article today is not to look at postseason stats or postseason success at all, it focuses solely on the regular season, specifically at Point totals. When compiling the data I found some interesting trends. Some teams had a great deal of success over the entire span, others were up and down and some struggled to find any success at all. Also present in the data were the growing trends. Some teams are on the way down as we exit the decade and others are just beginning to find their success, hopefully hitting their stride in the 70s.

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Let’s take a look at some raw data first. The teams that had the most success in the 60s were the Chicago syndicate with an average of 94.6 points per season, the Buffalo Stampede with an average of 91.4 points per season, the Atlanta Inferno with an average of 86 points per season, and finally, the Seattle Argonauts with an average of 85.3 points per season. While they were met with varying degrees of success in the playoffs, these teams definitely were the most consistent throughout this decade. Consistently good, that is.

With good. there always comes bad. Now it's time to take a look at the bottom dwellers throughout the 60s. First up is Minnesota. Minnesota averaged a lowly 41.2 points per season with valleys dipping as low as 13. That is in abysmal point total even with this new simulator. 13 points in season 65 was one of the lowest that we've seen in the entire stat sheet (yes I'm looking at you Winnipeg and Edmonton), but Minnesota's consistency does not give any hope to the fans because they've been consistently bad. Perhaps it's not all bad though, as in Season 68 and Season 69 they posted 34 and 38 points respectively. While those totals are still paltry, it does show signs that may be there on the upswing and will have a more successful 70s. Too tough to predict right now, but fans up north are definitely hoping that’s what it means.

The only rage that was happening in Manhattan was probably from their fans, as the Manhattan club posted a total of 49.4 average points per season. This rage inducing total is enough to lend them as the second worst on this list throughout the entire decade. It's not all bad, though as in the last four seasons they've had much more success posting 85 points in this most recent season, and there is reason to believe that they will be able to keep putting up consistent numbers of this nature and stay out of the cellar in future lists like this. While those were the only two alarmingly bad totals, there were some others that I should bring to light. Edmonton Blizzard averaged 56.8 Points per season and then relatively close together were the Montreal Patriotes at 58.4 and the New England Wolfpack at 58.7.

Now for some trends and some interesting things that you may notice looking at the data.

Have you ever seen a hockey team fall off a cliff? Not literally I hope, but if you look at the Toronto North Stars from Season 68 to Season 69 that's about as close as we can get without causing injury to anybody. In season 68 they had 96 points, and then all hell broke loose in season 69, as they fell to 29 Points. I didn't run the actual data on this going back further in the simulation, so don’t quote me 100%, but just with the eye test if I had to guess, I would say that that is the largest Point drop off from just one season turnaround. The Atlanta Inferno have been consistently good and with some weaker Seasons earlier in the decade, fans should think that they will continue to be successful. The Baltimore Platoon have reason to worry, after dominating the first half of the decade in the regular season, things started to take a turn for the worse, coming up with a measly 28 points in this most recent season. It also appears that the glory days of the Hamilton Steel Hawks are over. After frequently showing up in the 100s earlier in the decade, they've recently had low totals like 55, 25, 30 and 33. Not exactly too much inspiring hockey going on in Hamilton. Maybe they need a new sim engine to game. As a Jets fan, I was happy in the NFL when the Patriots stopped winning. However, now I have to deal with the Patriotes winning in the SHL. Montreal's hockey club is trending in the right direction if you're a fan of them with 101 points in his most recent season. The Philadelphia Forge seem to have left mediocrity behind as well. I know this is a regular season article but their highest point total in a while resulted in a first cup win so Philadelphia fans have a lot to be happy about (if they stay away from the media). out west there's been several big drop offs, including the Los Angeles Panthers who seemed to have fallen back to Earth after several good seasons. The San Francisco Pride and the Texas Renegades are experiencing similar trends and fans across the league will wait and see whether or not they can get back to their old winning ways.

So why did I do this article? Well, several reasons. For one, it's fun to look at data. As I'm getting back into this league I also wanted to familiarize myself with how teams have been performing. Which teams are on the upswing and which teams are potentially going to have a high draft pick which means I could possibly join them. It’s all very interesting to see the trends and as we enter the offseason and approach Season 70 I will be looking closely to see which teams continue to freefall, continue to climb or stay right in the middle of mediocrity.

Until next data article, RD out!