The old adage is that a goal prevented is better than a goal scored. At least as far as getting NHL standings points that seems to be true. I looked at the relationship between goals for, goals against, and standings points for each season 2007-08 through 2013-24. For the 2012-13 season, I multiplied the totals by (82/48) to correct for the shortened season. AGA is Adjusted Goals Against, etc.
> cor.test(Dataset$AGF, Dataset$APTS, alternative="two.sided",
+ method="pearson")
Pearson's product-moment correlation
data: Dataset$AGF and Dataset$APTS
t = 12.5147, df = 208, p-value
alternative hypothesis: true correlation is not equal to 0
95 percent confidence interval:
0.5706375 0.7263330
sample estimates:
cor
0.655393
> cor.test(Dataset$AGA, Dataset$APTS, alternative="two.sided",
+ method="pearson")
Pearson's product-moment correlation
data: Dataset$AGA and Dataset$APTS
t = -15.7764, df = 208, p-value
alternative hypothesis: true correlation is not equal to 0
95 percent confidence interval:
-0.7941097 -0.6695938
sample estimates:
cor
-0.738073
The correlation between both goals for and goals against with points is strong. It is significantly stronger with goals against.
Graphically
via i61.tinypic.com
via i61.tinypic.com
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