The THF, AHF, and AGHF each strive to provide the best youth hockey experience in the country. In response to an inquiry from an AHF family, on Friday February 3rd senior management responsible for scheduling began reviewing the data feed from GameSheet to the KRACH program and continued investigating this throughout the weekend. By Sunday February 5th, they discovered that the score report used to calculate the weekly rankings had a faulty data feed. Rather than recording the win/loss result from shootouts, KRACH recorded a tie for both the winning and losing team. Therefore, the KRACH ratings and rankings that were posted throughout the season were wrong, particularly impacting teams that had a relatively high percentage of shootouts. Black Bear Sports Group, which controls the Federations, apologies for not identifying this flaw earlier in the season and recognizes the disappointment faced by those players, families and coaches who were most impacted by learning so late that their relative ranking was not reliable, especially as relates to playoff placement.
On Tuesday February 7th, we communicated this issue with the boards of the three Federations and had calls with the Hockey Directors of the participating clubs. We chose to make the necessary adjustment to the calculation and then published the correct KRACH ratings the next day on Wednesday February 8th. Please be assured that the rankings are now accurate, and the correct teams are in the right playoff brackets. Yesterday morning, we explored with various Hockey Directors the idea of making changes to the Championship brackets, including expanding the size and/or changing the format. The consensus was that this would create significant logistical challenges for a greater number of families given the ripple effects of changing bracket sizes and playoff locations.
We have followed closely the feedback on social media, in particular the AHF discussion group on Facebook. Below are a few points to highlight:
- Again, we wish we had learned of this glitch in the data feed earlier and are sorry for the
confusion it caused. Moreover, we should have sent to the families this notification clarifying
what happened when the new rankings were published on Wednesday. - We want to be responsive to our families and players. Based upon your recent feedback
relating to this issue, we plan to revisit the championship bracket size and format going
forward. - We will revisit the treatment of tie games, including specifically the appropriateness of
shootouts. - We believe the presence of partial season teams in our leagues makes us stronger, allowing
for better competition and higher MyHockeyRankings for our teams. This is especially
important for our AAA and AA teams. - Many questions have been raised about the reliability of KRACH. We want to reassure you
that the formula, which was created by a third-party Python programmer is accurate. We will
be publishing the KRACH formula later this week. Again, the error was in the data feed from
GameSheet and not in the formula itself. - We offered to the Hockey Directors our willingness to get on a call with any team that has
been impacted or with anyone who has any further questions.
The mission of the Federations was to create an unbalanced schedule that maximizes competition for those interested in the highest levels of hockey and minimizes travel for those looking for a balance of competition and travel. We believe the short season teams help us form the best hockey leagues in America. The unbalanced schedule along with our spring parity event minimize blowout games. Our results speak for themselves as our blowout games are a fraction of those experienced in other local leagues. We hope this provides context to help you understand that the ranking issue was simply a data feed error, not a flaw in our league operating model.
We truly appreciate the passion of our families and coaches. You commit so much to this great sport, and it is our duty to listen to your concerns. Your feedback makes us better and we are truly grateful for your support.