NHL Elo Ratings - a/o Oct 26th

Continuing my Elo Ratings for NHL teams, I have updated their scores through October 26th. Below are the Top and Bottom 5 teams in the NHL.

Top 5
316.93 - Washington
268.29 - Pittsburgh
264.43 - Dallas
264.15 - Chicago
239.11 - Colorado

Bottom 5
127.77 - Columbus
142.84 - Winnipeg
163.28 - Montreal
173.58 - Boston
175.94 - Vancouver

Countdown to the 2011 ACC Championship

With December 3rd approaching fast, finally some headway has been made into who will not be playing in the ACC Championship Game. After this weekend's losses, both Boston College and University of Maryland have both secured their fates. The Atlantic Division is very close to figuring out who will be going, while the Coastal Division is completely still up in the air.

So, here is the list of teams still in contention for the ACC Championship Game:

Atlantic Division
Clemson
Florida State (on verge of elimination)
North Carolina State (on verge of elimination)
Wake Forest

Coastal Division
Duke
Georgia Tech
Miami(FL)
North Carolina
Virginia
Virginia Tech

Rankings in the NHL

I have decided to try ranking NHL teams by using the Elo Rating System. It is a system that is very common in giving a rating to individuals competing in 2-person events like chess. I tried it with football a few years back, but it wasn't as successful as I was hoping since football has so few games per season. I figure the NHL plays enough games to get a good statistical sampling to more accurately rate teams.

I did use a variation of the Elo system though. All teams started the year at a score of 200 points. The K-Value I used is the traditional 32 points(for teams under 2100). The change I made though is that if a team loses in an overtime situation, they do not lose points for that game while the winning team still earns points.

So far, for the games up through 10/19/2011, here are my rankings:

Top 5
1. Washington (287.79)
2. Colorado (259.89)
3. Detroit (259.73)
4. Toronto (257.26)
5. Dallas (253.30)

Bottom 5
1. Columbus (129.40)
2. Ottawa (147.99)
3. Tampa Bay (168.18)
4. San Jose (168.88)
5. Montreal (169.44)

Rugby Pictures - Blacksburg v. Blackwater

Here are probably my last set of Blacksburg Rugby pictures for some time. Hope you like. Open up the article to see the whole collection.