I need 3 pages essay for Statistic class

Running head: STATISTICS PROJECT/PAPER 2 Part I: Introduction/ Part II: Statement of the Problem

The St. Louis Blues are a part of the National Hockey League, also known as the NHL

and have been a team since 1967. “The Blues have earned a playoff spot for 25 consecutive

years (1979 through 2004). Recently, after a five-year absence, the Blues returned to the

playoffs in 2009” (St Louis Blues Hockey Club and the National Hockey League, 2010). Even

though the team has successfully earned playoff spots, they have never won the Stanley Cup

which I, along with many other Blues fans, find disheartening.

When the Blues first became a team, all of their home games were held at the St. Louis

Arena, which was demolished in 1999 (Suppes, 1996-2010). In 1994, a new facility called the

Kiel Center was built, seating 19,150 people. The name of the facility was changed to the Savvis

Center in 2000. Today, after enduring another name change in 2007, the facility now bears the

name of the Scottrade Center (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2010).

There are thirty teams in the NHL which are divided into two conferences, the Eastern

and Western. Both conferences consist of fifteen teams. Within each conference, there are three

divisions. The Blues are pitted in the Central Division of the Western Conference along with the

Northwest and Pacific Divisions. Also with the Blues in the Central Division, are the Detroit

Redwings, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Nashville Predators (St Louis

Blues Hockey Club and the National Hockey League, 2010).

As of December 4, 2010, the Blues have played twenty-four games and currently have a

record of twelve wins, nine losses and three over-time ties. For the first twelve games of the

season, the Blues were ranked first in their conference with an impressive record of nine wins,

one loss and two over-time ties (Rutheford, 2010). In part, their success was due to key players

being healthy. Two of these key players are T.J Oshie and David Perron. However, the next

Running head: STATISTICS PROJECT/PAPER 3 twelve games proved to be a monumental task as the Blues’ record fell to a dismal three wins,

eight losses, and one over-time tie, giving them the their current record of only twelve wins

(Rutheford, 2010). The decline in the Blues’ success can be directly correlated to the loss of the

aforementioned key players: Oshie and Perron.

Without their contributions to the team, the Blues have struggled. The Blues’ difficulties

can be pinpointed to the following events: David Perron sustained a concussion during the tenth

game of the season and T.J. Oshie fractured his ankle during the thirteenth. Coincidentally, the

Blues’ record plummeted at this point of the season. When Oshie was injured, at the time, he

was the Blues player who had the most points with nine assists and one goal, totaling to ten

points. Perron had five goals and two assists, totaling to seven points (St Louis Blues Hockey

Club and the National Hockey League, 2010). The focus of this statistics project is to prove that

the Blues were more successful with T.J. Oshie and David Perron.

Part III: Statement of the Hypotheses 1. Null hypothesis: Alternative hypothesis: Null hypothesis: Alternative hypothesis: 2. Null hypothesis: Alternative hypothesis:

Running head: STATISTICS PROJECT/PAPER 4 Part IV: Methodology

Being a fan of the Blues, it is important to me that they have a successful season in order

to make the playoffs for a chance to win to the Stanley Cup. Therefore, a change has to be made

so the Blues do not continue their string of unfortunate events and poor play. The data for this

study was gathered during games played by the Blues versus an opponent. Each player has

individual statistics as does the team as a whole. The statistics used were from the first twenty-

four games of the season. The data was divided into two sections: first twelve games and the

next twelve games. The first twelve games were played with Oshie and Perron (for 10 of the

games), and the second set of twelve games were played without Ohsie and Perron. Within each

set included goals scored, and goals allowed.

I used two formulas to analyze this data. The first formula used was a Test Statistic for

two means where there is no assumption. So, in other words, I used the equation twice for the

two sets of data. The data used was goals the Blues scored and goals the Blues allowed when

Oshie and Perron were playing and the games after the two were injured. For the games with

Oshie and Perron, I found the mean, or average, of goals allowed and also found the mean for

goals allowed. After that, I found the standard deviation of both. Next, I repeated the same steps

for the data when Oshie and Perron were not playing. After computing all of this, I was able to

plug both sets of data into the t equation twice. Once again, I had to do this twice because there

were two means.

The other test performed was to test a statistic for dependent (paired) means. I chose this

formula because it is comparing statistics before, when Oshie and Perron were healthy and

participating, and after, when Oshie and Perron were injured and not participating in the game.

In addition, this formula is also appropriate for the sets of data because it is dependent.

Running head: STATISTICS PROJECT/PAPER 5 Holistically, the data contributes to the Blues’ team record even though the data can be compared

separately through goals scored and goals allowed. For this equation, I subtracted goals when

Oshie and Perron were injured from the goals scored with Oshie and Perron. Then, I subtracted

goals allowed without Oshie and Perron from goals with Oshie and Perron. Once I found those

differences, I subtracted goals scored and goals allowed, then found the mean and standard

deviation of the differences between the two. Lastly, I was able to plug those numbers in the

equation.

Equations used: Part V: Analysis of the Data/Some Implications

After computing the two t tests, I failed to reject the first null hypothesis and rejected the

second hypothesis. Looking at the data this makes sense. With Oshie and Perron the first twelve

games, the Blues scored 30 goals, averaging 2.5 goals per game (Rutheford, 2010). When the

two were injured, the Blues scored 33 goals, averaging 2.75 goals per game (Rutheford, 2010).

Therefore, I would fail to reject the null hypothesis which stated that it made no difference

whether we had Oshie or Perron, when it fact, we scored more goals without them. For the

second t test, I rejected the null hypothesis. The second t test tested whether it made a difference

that Oshie and Perron were not there when analyzing goals allowed. There was a huge

difference here. With Oshie and Perron, the Blues allowed 17 goals, only letting in an average of

1.4 a game (Rutheford, 2010). Without them, the Blues allowed 51 goals, or 4.25 a game

(Rutheford, 2010). This null hypothesis was rejected because there was a difference found when

Running head: STATISTICS PROJECT/PAPER 6 Oshie and Perron were healthy and participating in the game. For the comparison equation that

tested the paired means, after calculating, I rejected the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis was

that it made no difference whether Oshie and Perron were playing or not. This was found to be

not true. After comparing the data goals scored and goals allowed before and after and then

finding the mean and standard deviation of that data, I found that not having Oshie or Perron for

the second half of the twenty-four games did prove impair the Blues and their performance.

Part VI: Conclusions and Implications

After researching and analyzing all of the data given about the Blues and their first

twenty-four games of play, I proved that it did make a difference that key players T.J. Oshie and

David Perron were injured during the second half of the total games played. The number of

goals allowed increased, causing a statistical deficit in ranking. I can conclude that if the Blues

had these two players, their record could have stayed the same and they might have won more

games.

Running head: STATISTICS PROJECT/PAPER 7

Bibliography

Rutheford, J. (2010, December 4). Night and Day Difference: Weak Defense is Key to Blues'

Downturn. The St. Louis Post Dispatch . St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America:

The St. Louis Post Dispatch.

St Louis Blues Hockey Club and the National Hockey League. (2010). Official Website of the St.

Louis Blues. Retrieved December 6, 2010, from Official Website of the St. Louis Blues:

http://blues.nhl.com/

Suppes, M. &. (1996-2010). The St. Louis Arena. Retrieved December 7, 2010, from

http://hockey.ballparks.com/NHL/St.LouisBlues/oldindex.htm

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (2010, December 4). Scottrade Center. Retrieved December 7,

2010, from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottrade_Center