Jan 05, 2025 | Winter Classic | 790 views
Playoff Preparation Games? What are Those?
This is the third edition of the Oakville Rangers Winter Classic, and this year we're looking to continue from the successes of the first two events while also trying to improve upon the things that were perhaps sub-optimal. One of the biggest changes teams may notice this year is that for a large number of divisions we are holding "playoff preparation" games. So let's explain what those are and why we believe this is an improvement.
With the timing of the tournament being in late January, the Winter Classic from year one has always been advertised as a bit of a playoff tune-up since for most teams their playoffs will start within a few weeks of the tournament. Simultaneously, just like every other tournament we have champions and teams competing for that title. So the 27 teams who end up winning will likely have a positive experience, but for the other 315 teams we want to make sure we provide the best 4-game experience possible.
Another benefit to the relatively late-in-the-season timing of the tournament is that there are mechanisms - albeit far from perfect mechanisms - available to seed teams before the tournament starts, and this is something we do in late November while the schedule is being made (combined with geographical restrictions). And again, it won't be perfect but we do try to ensure the "strong" teams are spread across round robin pools, which naturally follows that the "weaker" teams are also spread out.
From a competitiveness standpoint, this means that during the round robin portion there will be games where "strong" teams play "weak" teams - and quite often those games may not be the best experience for either team. They need to happen in order to validate the rankings, but once validated, we feel that the sooner we can group teams based on competitiveness, the better the experience will be.
So, in the first year of the tournament we had round robin pools consisting of 6 or more teams, meaning that during the 4 round robin games, not every team played each other. In many cases, this created a struggle with tie-breaking scenarios which were seen as unfair because the "X vs X" matchup never happened. In year two, to solve for that problem, wherever possible the round robin pools were limited to 4 teams so that each team within a pool played each other, and then an extra "crossover" game was added in the round robin.
The pairings for those crossover games were extremely arbitrary, with usually geography playing a role in determining who would play who. When it came time to play them, they could be either 1) a game that was impactful for one or both teams, and would be competitive, 2) a game that was impactful for one or both teams, but would not be competitive, or 3) a game that was not impactful for either team and may or may not have competitive. So, some crossover games were won based on facing a "weak" opponent resulting in advancement, and some crossover games were lost based on facing a "strong" opponent preventing advancement. And to add to that, the crossover games had unintended negative consequences in several tie-breaking scenarios.
As a side-note, round robin pools consisting of 5 teams provides both a balanced schedule and a 4-game guarantee. However, from a scheduling perspective when there are pools of odd-numbered teams that means there are 3 "sets" of games that have to happen each day and to ensure proper spacing between games requires more ice. In a very large tournament such as the Winter Classic, doing this for every division would be well outside the limits we have with ice inventory and many, many more games would have to start earlier and end later - which is not the best experience and is why we try to avoid odd numbers in the round robin pools.
So, for this year once again nearly all divisions will have round robin pools consisting of 4 teams. The first 3 games for each team will be within their pool, but instead of arbitrary crossover games for the 4th game we are doing something new this year - which we've seen done in many other large tournaments - which is to have a 4th game played between teams which is not impactful to the standings but is likely to be competitive, and those are what we are calling Playoff Preparation Games.
The argument against this method is that those games are "meaningless". But as we've already stated, crossover games that we've had in the past may also be just as meaningless in terms of advancement but did not prevent blowouts. In a short timeframe situation like a tournament, if you're in a 12-team division where only the top 4 teams advance to the semi-finals, if you lose your first 2 round robin games it's pretty safe to say your 3rd and 4th games will be meaningless. Certainly if you lose your first 3 games, your 4th game is definitely not going to impact your ability to advance. Allowing the tournament to choose your opponent for your 4th game will, in almost all cases, be an improved experience.
Mathematically, we have 9 large divisions this year where the top 8 teams advance to quarter-finals, and 19 standard divisions where 4 teams advance to semi-finals. So, 148 teams are not impacted by Playoff Preparation games because they won't be in them. Of the remaining 194 teams who will not advance, we believe strongly that for about 70% of them, or about 136 teams, would not have advanced anyway and hand-selecting their 4th game will provide an improved experience. That leaves 58 teams - or about 2 per division - who may feel "if we only had that 4th round robin game, we would have advanced". Which is similar to the number of teams who were negatively impacted by tie-breakers that involved crossover games, or tie-breakers involving games that never happened, in previous years.
So, as a tournament we know there is no perfect solution and we're not going to make everyone happy. But we feel that based on the rationale above what we're doing this year provides the best possible experience for the highest number of teams. Once the tournament is over, as we've done in the first two years, we'll be sure to ask for everyone's feedback on the format so once this year's tournament is wrapped up please be sure to let us know your thoughts.