There are many different types of hockey scoring systems out there, but the most popular ones are built on the same general idea. The basic premise is to give each team’s players a set of goals or requirements that they need to meet in order to win the game. In other words, you want to quantify how good each player is relative to the rest of the league (and hopefully, the rest of the world). This is especially useful in fantasy hockey since you can easily compare players’ stats from season to season or even within one game.
The main advantage of this type of system is that it’s easily replicable. You don’t need to rely on subjective opinions or gut feelings when trying to decide who is better, but rather, you have a set of numbers that you can work with. In situations where there is a tie, you can resort to a few more sets of statistics to determine the winner. For example, you can give more weight to the goals scored or the strength of the team’s netminder based on whose records are best in those categories. This is a lot more objective and, in theory, should lead to fewer disputes about the outcome of a game. It’s also a great way to build a budgeting tool for hockey fans since it allows you to easily keep track of which players are nearing or have met their goal numbers for the season. Of course, this also provides a lot of information for the casual hockey fan which is always nice.
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Espn Fantasy Hockey Scoring
Of course, this all changes with the introduction of espn fantasy hockey. As the name would suggest, this variant of fantasy hockey is hosted on ESPNews, which, as its name would suggest, is a sports network that broadcasts mostly football plays and other sports-related content.
While regular fantasy hockey leagues exist where you play the role of a general manager, in this one, you take on the role of a play-by-play announcer whose job is to describe the action of the game as it happens. Now, while this might not sound like a difficult job, describing the action of a game based on statistical data is extremely difficult for any human being. Doing this for hours on end is not something that people generally do for a living. This is where automated scoring comes in.
To that end, espn fantasy hockey uses a form of automated (or at least semi-automated) scoring that has been around for a while now. When you create an account on their website, you will be prompted to select a fantasy league (if you are placing a bid in a league, you must create an account first) and then select a game to cover. Once you have signed up for an account and confirmed your email, you will receive a welcome message from espn outlining the basics of their fantasy hockey system.
Espn makes it fairly straightforward to integrate their scoring system into your website. Once you have downloaded the scoring widget to your site, you just need to enter the following code (found on the dashboard of your website):
- h1: the id of the html element where you want the widget to appear
- h2: the id of the html element where you want the widget to appear
- h3: the id of the element that you want to use for the metrics (goals, assists, and so on)
- h4: the id of the html element where you want the widget to appear
- input_type: select whether you want a text input (for names) or an <input type=”radio”> (for teams)
This will place the espn fantasy hockey scoring widget on your site. You can then enter game notes or stats for each player in the form of names and stats (the more information you input, the more accurate the scoring will be). You can also download the entire database of games to your computer so that you can enter more detailed stats if you so desire.
As with any other form of automated scoring, this one too has its share of problems. For example, sometimes a stat will get entered incorrectly or a game will be missed due to errors. Thankfully, these instances are fairly rare and, as long as you have a functional email or phone number, you can contact espn customer service to prompt them to sort out any issues. In addition, you have the option to choose who will be your color analyst for the year’s worth of games by either having them assigned or choosing your own. For more information, you can check out the espn FAQs or contact customer support directly via email or phone.
Other Types Of Statistical Scoring
While the espn fantasy hockey scoring mechanism itself is incredibly useful, the information it provides is just one piece of the puzzle. To truly succeed as a fantasy general manager, you will need to consider how you are going to value your players, which is where most other types of statistical scoring come in.
This is especially important in dynasty leagues where you can start with a small base of players and then add others over time. In order to determine the value of a player in such a scenario, you will need to look at a variety of stats including, but not limited to, the stats mentioned above as well as defense, power play, and goals against.
One popular option is to use the cbs fantasy hockey scoring system, which stands for (you guessed it) the completely unbiased baseball statistician’s system. This approach is fairly easy to use since you just need to enter the following url into your browser:
- cbssports: the url of the cbs sports website
- flip: the id of the element on the cbs sports website that you want to use for the metrics (hits, runs, and other batting related statistics)
You then need to enter name of the player you want to check stats for and then click on the “create an account” button. You will then be routed to the cbs sports login page where you can enter the following info:
- Username: a unique username you will use for this website
- Password: the password for the username you entered
- Email address: the email address you entered on the cbs sports website
- Phone number: the phone number you entered on the cbs sports website
- Password (again): the password for the email address you entered
- Confirm Password: the password you entered on the cbs sports website again
Once you log in, you will discover the cbs sports website is fairly easy to use and provides a wealth of information. This includes all the standard stuff like games covered, scorers, leaders in all the major statistical categories and, of course, player stats. What’s great about this approach is that you don’t need to have a massive budget since you are accessing a free database of games that someone else built.
Evaluating Players’ Value
Once you have all of this information at your fingertips, you can start to put it to good use. Since we are dealing with fantasy here, we will assume that you are building a fantasy team. The question then becomes: how much are you willing to spend on each player?
One way of solving this dilemma is by using the following formula:
- x: the value you are willing to spend on the player (in terms of fantasy points)
- y: the value you are getting back from the player (in terms of fantasy points)
- 1-y/x: the percentage by which you want to reduce your spending (in order to reach your budget)
So, for example, you want to allocate $100 for a player’s contract and you expect to get back $90 in value. Your first instinct might be to spend $110 just so you can reach your budget (adding $10 in values per dollar), but that’s not what you should be doing. Instead, you should be allocating $100 for a player’s contract and reducing your spending by 10 percent (ie, $10). In this case, you would end up allocating $90 for the player’s contract since your budget was exceeded by 10 percent.
Making Player Transactions
Another thing that most (if not all) fantasy managers like myself struggle with is making player transactions. This is especially true in cases where you have a surplus of players and are looking to make a move. The problem is that most sports websites have a limit of two items per transaction, so you either have to stay within those limits or find a way to work around them. One of the simplest ways of doing this is by utilizing the hidden value of certain stats.