A. The real world application I choose was to look at the point production of Chris Kunitz and to look and see if his production has been steadily increasing during his time spent with the Pittsburgh Penguins, or if they have begun to fall down.
B.
Intro: Chris Kunitz is a hockey player in the NHL who is currently playing on the Pittsburgh Penguins. He can be considered a veteran of the league as he is now 35 years old going up against players close to half of his age!!! Before he was traded to the Penguins from the Ducks he was already a game changing player, but he is now past the age that is considered a players prime. Using my knowledge in calculus I am going to observe and prove whether or not Chris Kunitz has truly hit his prime yet or if he is still improving his level of play. To do this I am going to look at the statistic of points per game. This allows me to use both goals and assists which is a measure for a players production in the NHL and since it is on a per game basis, injuries or a shortened season will not skew results.
Question: Has Chris Kunitz's change in point production been negative with his career with the Penguins?
C.
Table:
Season
|
Games Played
|
Points
|
Points/Game
|
2008-2009
|
20
|
18
|
.9
|
2009-2010
|
50
|
32
|
.64
|
2010-2011
|
66
|
48
|
.727
|
2011-2012
|
82
|
61
|
.744
|
2012-2013
|
48
|
52
|
1.08
|
2013-2014
|
78
|
68
|
.872
|
D.
Graph/work:
E. The secant lines showed that compared to his 3rd year with the Penguins, he was always improving his points per game.
F./G. Tangent line had a slope of .052 points per game. This means there is an expected positive increase in points per game over his this time period.
H. Part G is the IRC because it gives the slope of the tangent line which is the value that the relationship is expected to increase at an exact point. It showed that there would be about a .1 increase between year 2 and year 4 which did happen.
In conclusion, Chris Kunitz has shown an improvement since he has started playing with the pens but the 2012-2013 season may have been the best season of his career and could be his peak. There is not enough data to make any more conclusions.
Hi Brian! I really enjoyed reading your scenario and it gave me some more insight into how hockey truly works, since I'm not a huge fan. I found it interesting that Chris Kunitz has done so well for being an older player. Good job on your calculations and your blog post overall!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading through your example. You picked a unique topic and I liked how you considered things that may have skewed your results and avoided such things. It was interesting to see your result/conclusion of how well Kunitz has done with the Penguins!
ReplyDeletebrian,
ReplyDeletewonderful experiment! your graphics, calculations and explanations are very well done and in good detail! the only thing i would include in your explanation is the units, so to explain that in his 3rd year, his points per game are increasing at a rate of .052 points per game per season.
from your experiment, kind of seems like chris is holding his own against the young players. =)
prof little