Network flows: theory, algorithms, and applications
Network flows: theory, algorithms, and applications
A New Property and a Faster Algorithm for Baseball Elimination
SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics
Flow-Based Propagators for the SEQUENCE and Related Global Constraints
CP '08 Proceedings of the 14th international conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming
Mathematically clinching a playoff spot in the NHL and the effect of scoring systems
Canadian AI'08 Proceedings of the Canadian Society for computational studies of intelligence, 21st conference on Advances in artificial intelligence
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Many sports fans invest a great deal of time into watching and analyzing the performance of their favourite team. However, the tools at their disposal are primarily heuristic or based on folk wisdom. This paper provides a concrete mechanism for calculating the minimum number of points needed to guarantee a playoff spot in the National Hockey League (NHL). Along with determining how many games need to be won to guarantee a playoff spot comes the notion of "must win" games. Our method can identify those games where, if a team loses, they no longer control their own playoff destiny. As a side effect of this, we can also identify when teams get lucky and still make the playoffs even though another team could have eliminated them.