League Information and Codes
EXPLANATION OF PLAYER RATINGS EFHL SEASON 2 AND LATER

There are a couple of concepts to get down pat first. The CORE 
ratings display for all the skaters is based on what I will call the 
BASE situation. The values in the CORE ratings for a player can and 
will be adjusted by various on-ice situations that are different from 
the BASE situation.

The BASE situation is defined by these conditions:

Even-strength.
No forechecking, plus passers, intimidators, blocked shots, screening.
Player facing an NHL AVERAGE DEFENSE of 6 (forwards rated 2, defense 
rated 3).
Player facing an NHL AVERAGE CLEARING of 6.
Player facing a goalie with a save percentage equal to the NHL'S 
AVERAGE SAVE PERCENTAGE (*after* factoring out empty net goals from 
the league average).

Any changes to the BASE situation (team is shorthanded or on power 
play, players with forechecking, intimidation etc are on ice, more or 
less defense than 6 is on ice, goalie with save percentage above or 
below the league average) will affect the CORE ratings below.

For MOST of the changes to the BASE situation, I will provide the 
neccessary adjustments to make to the CORE ratings to reflect the new 
situation. Some will be estimates. For some others, I'll just give 
general guidelines.

So, with the new ratings display, you can see how a player will 
perform under BASE (normal or average) conditions and also how a 
player will perform under other situations.

Here's a sample of the new format with a fictional player:

Player Name POS GP MP D/C N P S D SH PC IF PN IN RT 
--------------------------------------------------------------
D. Engemon LW 27 12 2/0 12 14 1 6 26 0 28 6 40 56

HI HP VP PK EXTRAS
----------------------
6 10 0 7 FC S

Player Name - self-explanatory
Positions - positions this player can play without incurring the out 
of position penalty
GP - NHL Games Played
MP - NHL Minutes per game Played
D/C - Defense/Clearing ratings

N - NORMAL even strength shooting percentage (not Face-Off shooting 
range!) expressed in a REAL shooting percentage against an average 
NHL goalie. For Diamond Dean above, he will score on average 12 
percent of the time against the NHL Average goalie on shots taken at 
even strength.

P - POWER PLAY shooting percentage expressed in a REAL shooting 
percentage against an average NHL goalie. In the example above, Eagle 
Eye Engemon's shooting percentage goes up to 14 percent on the power 
play when facing an NHL average goalie.

(NOTE: The skater's actual NHL Shooting percentage for the 2000-2001 
season should be some number between or at either the N or P values. 
The skater's actual NHL Shooting percentage should not fall outside 
these two values. If you see one, let us know! :) In the example 
above, Engemon's actual NHL shooting percentage for the 2000-2001 
season should fall in the range of 12 to 14 percent.)

S - SHORTHANDED shooting percentage expressed in a REAL shooting 
percentage against an average NHL goalie. (If a player did not score 
any shorthanded goals all year, he will get a default 1 percent 
shorthanded shooting percentage as in the example above.)

D - POINT shooting percentage when a forward is playing the RD or LD 
positions expressed in a REAL shooting percentage against an average 
NHL goalie. For defensemen, this rating is the same as their P rating 
and only applies on power plays.

SH, PC, IF, PN, IN
These are the heart of the new ratings display. When a player has the 
puck, one of five things has to happen:

SH - (SHOOTING) He takes a shot on goal.

PC - (PUCK CONTROL) He doesn't take a shot on goal, but his team 
retains possession of the puck for the next possession. This may be a 
pass to another player or he may keep the puck himself, but the next 
action is determined by the same team.

IF - (INFRACTION) The puck is frozen and a Face-off is held to 
determine which team will get the puck to determine the next action.

PN - (PENALTY) The player will get a penalty. This may be a 
coincidental penalty of some kind (see RT rating below).

IN - (INTERCEPTION) The player turns the puck over to the other team 
and the opposing team will determine the next action.

The ratings for these five values are expressed in percentages and 
should add up to 100 percent. (some are a little over or under 100 
whne you add them up because I rounded to the nearest percentage.) 

Keep in mind these percentages are for the BASE situation defined 
above. They will and can vary based on who else is on the ice at the 
same time. I'll cover most of these modifications at the end of this 
article.

So, in the example above, when Dean Engemon's card is being used to 
determine the next action, there is a 26 percent chance Dean will 
take a shot on goal, a zero (0) percent chance he will pass or puck 
control, a 28 percent chance of an infraction (Icing, infraction), a 
6 percent chance he will take a penalty and a 40 percent chance he 
will turn the puck over to the other team.

RT - Penalty Retaliation Rating. This is the percentage chance a 
player will take another player off the ice with him on a penalty. 
(Coincidental minors, majors, minor-majors, coincidental double 
minors etc.) In the example above, we can see Dean only has a 6 
percent chance of taking a penalty any time his card is determining 
the action, BUT if he DOES get a penalty, there is a 56 percent 
chance someone from the other team will be going with him at the same 
time.

HI - Home Ice rating. Add this number to the player's SH rating and 
subtract it from his IN rating when this player is playing at home. 
In the example above, when Diamond Dean is playing at home, his 
chance for taking a shot goes up to 32 percent (26+6) and his chance 
of giving up an interception goes down to 34 percent (40-6). (NOTE: A 
lot of teams don't even HAVE Home Ice advantages, so don't expect 
every player to have this rating.)

HP - Home Penalty Rating. Add this number to the player's PN rating 
and subtract it from his IN rating when this player is playing at 
home. (Basically this player took more penalties at home than on the 
road.) In the example above, Dean's HP of 10 gets added to his PN of 
6 and subtracted from his IN rating (which was already modified by 
the Home Ice advantage above.) So, when Dean is playing at home, he's 
a whole 'nother player than on the road! His final CORE ratings 
playing at home would be 32 percent chance of a shot at home, 0 
percent chance of puck control, 28 percent chance of infraction, 16 
percent chance of a penalty at home, and now only a 24 percent chance 
of an interception at home!

VP - Visitor Penalty Rating. Add this number to the player's PN 
rating and subtract it from his IN rating when this player is playing 
on the road. (This player took more penalties on the road than at 
home.)

(Note that either he took more on the road or more at home - or 
didn't take enough to qualify for either - so both of these ratings 
cannot be greater than 0, only one can, if any.)

PK - Penalty Kill Puck Control. This number REPLACES the player's 
normal PC rating when he is on the shorthanded team. The difference 
between this rating and the original PC rating is added or subtracted 
from the player's IN rating. (NOTE that for MOST players on a team, 
this rating will be ZERO (0) to reflect that ALL passes become 
interceptions when playing shorthanded. Those players that have a 
value for this rating are those players with PK +s on their cards.)

EXTRAS - These are all the (mostly, except for + passing) subjective 
ratings like forechecking, screening, blocked shots, intimidation, 
Face-Off Aces, PK Aces, Power play point.

For every point of defense over 6, SH will go down, IN will go up. 
How much depends on the individual player. Vice versa for every point 
of defense under 6.

Players on the power play will have some IN turned into PC. This is a 
standard increase. PK Aces on the shorthanded team 
will turn some of the power play team's SH into IN.

Shorthanded players as mentioned above lose all PC (except any they 
get from PK rating) and have it all put into IN.

Forechecking turns some of defensemen PC into IN (AND gets an 
automatic shot for the opposing team). 

+ passing turns some IN into SH for forwards.

Intimidation turns some PC into IN. This varies from player to player.

Things like blocked shots, clearing, screening affect things not 
mentioned above like chance of rebound shots or increase or decrease 
to a shooting percentage. Face-Off Aces affect which team contols the 
next action after a face-off.

The idea is that you will be able to look at a player's CORE ratings 
and then look at his linemates and how they 
affect his CORE ratings, whether he's playing at home or on the road 
and how that affects the CORE ratings, how well he'll play in 
shorthanded or powerplay situations, who's on the ice against him and 
how THEY will affect his CORE ratings and so on.