1. Why are you doing this?
2. How does MYHockey compute its ratings?
3. Are some teams or leagues given preferential treatment?
4. How accurate can this be?
5. We beat Team X twice, how can they still be ranked ahead of us?
6. We won both our games this past weekend and our rating went down, how is this?
7. What does a team's overall rating number mean?
8. What does each of the columns on the ratings page mean?
9. Why are some teams not in the rankings?
10. Why are some game scores missing and team records inaccurate?
11. Which teams and leagues are being ranked?
12. A game score is incorrect, how do I get it corrected?
13. There are missing or duplicate game scores, how do I correct them?
14. My local association information is incomplete or inaccurate, how do I get it corrected?
15. Can my league use this information?
16. How can my league help?
17. How can my team help?
18. How can I help?
19. How is it that MYHockey is free?
20. Do we have to pay to see the rankings now that you are selling memberships?

MYHockey was developed to share the love of youth hockey with others. It started as a project to share links to other associations and leagues with others. It progressed to teams as my son's team sought competition outside our immediate geographical area. When we started looking at teams, we began to look at records to see if another team might be good competition for my son's team. We quickly realized that a team's record was not an indicator of strength and then we started to wonder who (which team) was really better and by how much. As our team pursued a search for good competition, we made some mistakes that left both us and our opponents less than satisfied after a weekend of blowouts. Over time, MYHockey emerged as a tool to help youth hockey fans, coaches and managers learn more about the sport we all love.

MYHockey's ratings are computed mathematically, with no subjective weighting or human determined values. MYHockey rates teams based upon how well they play against other teams and how good those teams are. These two factors are "AGD" or "average goal differential" and "SCHED" or "strength of schedule". AGD is currently calculated by accumulating the goal differential of each game, to a maximum of 7, and divides it by the number of games played. Using a max game goal differential of 7 does "penalize" teams that blow out opponents, but this is common in rating systems as it takes away the incentive for teams to run up scores and allows them to have a bad game by capping the mathematical damage. The strength of schedule is computed by averaging the rating of each game opponent. AGD and SCHED are added together to compute a team's rating.

There is no preferential treatment for teams from certain leagues. All teams are assumed to be equal and having a rating of zero before the system mathematically calculates your SCHED and AGD based entirely upon game performance. A team's SCHED is not only determined by the teams it plays, but by the teams its opponents play and its opponents' opponents play, etc. All teams in a given age level (i.e. Midgets) are ranked in one statistical pool. The math does not know if the teams are major, minor, AAA or AA, it simply computes based upon who a team has played (SCHED) and how well they have done (AGD).

In general, as teams start getting 20+ games under their belts, the system tends to be very accurate. There are, however, some occasional exceptions.

If a group of teams (i.e. a league) doesn't play others outside its group, their placement relative to all other teams cannot be accurately be determined, but relative to one another it is accurate. Groups of teams with limited outside play can be inaccurately skewed by the scores of only a few games, which might not be representative of the group's overall ability. Accuracy significantly increases with more games and more interplay and it makes sense for there to be a minimum number of games before teams are ranked.

Assuming teams have all played enough games against both league and non-league teams, inaccuracies may still exist. Some teams play differently (a lot differently) depending upon which goalie is in net for a specific game. In this case, the ratings average out the play and may not completely reflect either scenario. Missing players, home vs. away, double rostered players are a few other scenarios that could influence the accuracy of the ratings. It's not an exact science. The ratings should be used to determine what teams might be good non-league opponents and which bracket of a tournament may be more appropriate, they are not meant to be the AP Poll for youth hockey.

There are a couple weaknesses to the current system. The first deficiency is with teams that emphasize development in some games. They are "penalized". That same team may then focus on winning big tournaments and succeed, but may never achieve the rating that they "deserve". Secondly, teams that "come on" in the second half of the season are "penalized" by early poor performances. All games throughout the season count equally and that may not reflect a teams performance near the end of the season.

Yes, it seems wrong, but a team that you have a winning record against can be ranked ahead of you. It's all in mathematics. It depends on who else your team has played and how well you did as well as who the other team has played and how well they did. In a season of games, there will be some anomalies.

Your rating can go down even though your team wins. This can happen for a couple different reasons. First, if your team is rated 3.0 points (1 point = 1 goal) better than your opponent and you win two close games by 1 goal each, your average goal differential (AGD) is +1.0 against a team that it was expected to be +3.0. This would likely have a negative impact on your rating. Another scenario has you doing as expected against your opponent, but a large percentage of the teams you played earlier in the season doing unexpectedly bad. This lowers your strength of schedule and would lower your team's rating. It is almost impossible to guess how much and in what direction your rating will move each week because of the complexity of the math.

Two additional notes. During the entire season, new team continue to be added to the system. Teams rated in the middle of the pack in October may fall 100 spots by the end of the season while improving, simply because the number of teams added to MYHockey increases over time. It might be best to compare your team to others in your league or geographic area and see if your rating improves relative to theirs. Also, MYHockey now has available a page that explains the mathematics behind the rating. From either the scores page for a particular team or from the team information page, you can find a link to the math page.

Everything is relative. The number specifically means nothing, but might be used to understand the relative competitiveness of two different teams. A 1.0 point differential equates to a theoretical goal 1.0 goal advantage by the team with the higher point value. Squirts, Peewees, Bantams, Midgets/Prep/HS, Juniors and College are all calculated separately. While a Peewee Minor AAA team can get a pretty good sense on how good they would fair against a Peewee Major AA team because all Peewee ratings are calculated relative to one another, one cannot compare a Squirt Major AAA team to a Peewee Minor AA team in the same fashion. MYHockey has some limitations and figuring the relative difference between stronger squirt teams and weaker peewee teams is one of them.

"Record" is represented by wins-loses-ties. As described above, the "Rating" is simply the sum of the "AGD" and "SCHED". "AGD" is average goal differential. This can be a positive or negative number that equals goals for (GF) minus goals against (GA) divided by games played (GP). One caveat, the system currently has a maximum goal differential of six (7) for any single game played. This means that if a team plays a number of games decided by more than seven goals, it's not quite as simple as GF-GA/GP. "SCHED" is the average strength of schedule of all opponents. Fundamentally you can add the "RATING" for all opponents and divide by GP. "Details" will give you more information about the team while "Scores" is a link to a team's complete set of season game scores as recorded in MYHockey.

A couple hints to give you the full power of MYHockey. Any teams with known team websites will be represented by underline/hotlinked team names. Clicking on the team name will open an additional window to this team's web site. When viewing scores, each opponent's schedule is just a click away. For example, if you are viewing the game scores of Team X and they played Team Y, you can view Team Y's game scores by simply clicking on Team Y's name.

Teams are displayed on the rankings only after having played at least five games against others teams in the system. Games not recorded via publically accessible team, league and tournament web sites are unlikely to be recorded (there is no magic here).

MYHockey has now expandeded to include almost all competitive youth hockey in the US and Ontario where birth year age level are used. Virtually all competitive hockey in North America is covered, but some geographic areas are not yet aware of MYHockey and may not be volunteering to keep information updated. Every attempt is being made to include all Tier I and virtually all competitive Tier II hockey. Feel free to contact MYHockey if you feel certain areas are underserved.

Missing scores are typically not in the system for one of a few different reasons. First, only AAA, AA (or equivalent level) and AA/A minor games are being tracked. When minor birth year teams play less competitive mixed birth year teams (i.e. teams not found in MYHockey), those games will not be entered into MYHockey. Second, games scores found on league and team web sites are the primary source of MYHockey volunteers and if the game score isn't located on a web site where someone is looking, it won't get entered into the system. Third, game scores against ambiguous teams (i.e. "Flames" or "Chicago Blues" or "Columbus") don't identify the exact opponent and will not get recorded unless the exact team can be identified. Spell out team names more clearly so there is no question in the mind of our volunteers. Lastly, some scores aren't entered or entered in a timely fashion because there is no volunteer covering their league/division. Please consider volunteering. To find out more, go to the Report Scores Page.

In 2009 MYHockey made an enhancement to allow more scores to be included. These two areas have been traditional problem spots for MYHockey and will continue to require a fair amount of maintenance. As a result, these capabilities are only available to volunteers and members of MYHockey. Scores against teams of another age level can now be entered into the system. Scores against teams not eligible for MYHockey can now be entered as well. If these things are of interest to you, please consider a membership.

MYHockey has expanded significantly each of its six seasons. The 2009-10 season will see MYHockey once again expand its footprint. It now includes Squirt Minor through Midget Major teams throughout the US & Ontario at both AAA and AA levels. Virtually all Canadian Midget and Bantam AAA teams are in the system. Girls teams from peewee through Midget/Juniors/College are now included. MYHockey expanded into Minnesota with the release of the MNHockeyRankings.com web site. This site is integrated with MYHockey and game scores can now be entered when mainstream MYHockey teams visit Minnesota, but the fact that Minnesota still uses different cutoff dates for teams (kids can be 6 months older than players on teams in the rest of the US and Canada) so Minnesota teams are still ranked somewhat separately. USA High School hockey, USA College hockey are going on their second seasons in MYHockey with Juniors making its debut during the 2009-10 season. Still not seeing what you are looking for? Send MYHockey an email. Growth is a specific result of user interest.

Sometimes mistakes happen. It may be on our side, or it might have come from a team or league web site. Too many humans involved... If reasonable, work to get the score corrected on its posted site first. For the 2009-10 MYHockey has released an online game score correction request for that allows anyone to report an incorrect score the MYHockey game scores page for a given team. No email, just fill out a form and tell us what is wrong with the score.

Again, mistakes are inevitable. If duplicate scores have been posted, complete an online score correction request to get things corrected. We try to catch these ourselves, but we appreciate your help. To resolve the issue of missing game scores, please visit the Report Scores page for more information on volunteering and/or reporting these scores.

My apologies, especially if we have simply mis-keyed something in at MYHockey. Typically, info on MYHockey is incorrect because it is incorrect on the association web site, or worse yet, there is no association web site to refer to. My first hope, in these cases, is that the real source of info gets updated. Then, by all means, send any corrections to our director at director@myhockeyrankings.com.

Absolutely. MYHockey has actually helped leagues who have pre-season schedules to help determine who plays in which division during the regular season. This service is available to others as well. Please send an email to director at director@myhockeyrankings.com.

Accurately post all league scores! The number one thing a league can do is post, on the internet in a timely fashion, all league game scores. Encouraging associations/teams to create team web sites and make non-league game scores available to the public would also help.

Create a team web site and list all game scores in an area where our volunteers can easily find it. Also, please clearly identify your opponents. Ambiguity means we cannot post the results, even if you have them on your web site.

Volunteer to enter scores. Become a member. Keep us honest by reporting any errors.

MYHockey is free just as Google is free. Advertising covers most of the cost of running the website. Volunteers, from the founder to the quiet goalie's mom on your team, contribute countless hours with a common goal in mind. MYHockey's mission is to provide you the best, most complete and accurate information about youth hockey. Memberships are available at a very low price for those wanting extra features and/or who would like to provide financial support for the site.

No! Everything that was available for free during the 2008-09 season is still be available for free during the 2009-10 season. However, you can now choose to join MYHockey for a small fee to obtain additional services that have been requested by our users. This is very similiar to how Google and the Wall Street Journal provide services. Basic content is free, premium content is available for a small fee. It's optional.