Welcome to Connecticut Hockey Ratings !

Site Purpose

Connecticut Hockey Ratings was designed to help solve a few basic needs in Connecticut youth hockey:

1)  update the Connecticut hockey community with current news;

2)  provide a place for Connecticut hockey fans to post their views about their favorite teams; and

3)  provide a measure of relative team strength within and across each of the tiers of Connecticut youth hockey.

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Background and Solution

The Connecticut Hockey Conference (CHC), the governing body for Connecticut youth hockey,  permits each youth hockey organization to field only one team in each of the Tiers (2-4) of hockey.  Generally, it is easier to identify which teams should be in the top two tiers, however, classifying teams across lower tiers is far more difficult.   There are many more teams in the open tier and the skill level of these teams is far more disparate.  The disparate level between teams leads to lopsided games, which is frustrating for the fans, the organization and the children.

Up until now, determining the strength of your opponent was a subjective process based on an interpretation of the game results of your team and those of your opponent.  However, this method requires perfect knowledge of your opponent’s strength of schedule.  Connecticut Hockey Ratings provides an objective measurement and incorporates the strength of schedule for all Connecticut based teams.

Connecticut Hockey Ratings can help identify teams that are more closely matched and provide a better experience for all participants.

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The Rating Methodology

Initially, each rated team is assigned a rating that is based on what Tier it is playing in (1-4).  This is primarily used to seed the initial ratings and has little to do with where a team’s rating ultimately will settle in over time.  As each game is played, the rating of each team is adjusted based on the goal differential and the rating of each team.

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Q and A

1.  Why did the rating of our team go down even though we won our game?  If the rating of your team is higher than your opponent, you are expected to win and win by a projected differential.  If your team wins by a differential that the projected margin, your team rating will fall and your opponent’s rating will rise.

2.  What is the rating methodology based on?  This rating methodology most closely resembles the player rating system used by the United States Tennis Association.

3.  My team plays in Tier 1.  Why don’t you have ratings for us?  There are other resources on the internet that address Tier 1 ratings quite well already.  http://myhockeyrankings.com/  is a great resource for Tier 1 hockey.  This site focuses on Tiers 2-4 and the lack of resources for this growing part of the game.

4.  How often are ratings updated?  Ratings will be updated weekly – generally updated on Tuesday evening.

Please send your comments or questions to: admin@cthockeyratings.com