With the 2015-16 NHL regular season now complete and the Stanley Cup Playoffs set to begin, I took the opportunity to update my “barcode” visualization from a couple months ago.
The interactive Tableau dashboard below displays the final division standings as you would usually see them presented—Games Played, Wins, Losses, OverTime Losses, Points—but with an added visualization of the win/loss record of each team:
My inspiration for this “barcode” viz style came from similar vizzes created by Peter Gilks (BallCode) and Craig Wortman (MLB Barcode Chart) using data from the NBA and MLB, respectively.
The idea is simple—a “positive” bar represents a win, and a “negative” bar represents a loss. In my chart, I have also coloured the wins with each team’s primary colour, while all the losses are shaded grey.
The barcode viz makes it easy to see patterns, like winning and losing streaks, which are hidden when looking only at the win or point totals.
For example, you can see how the Pittsburgh Penguins won 14 or their last 16 games to jump into 2nd place in the Metropolitan Division.
On the other hand, the Montreal Canadiens’ hot start to the season is easily contrasted with their subsequently dismal performance; the red “win” bars become fewer and further between in the second two-thirds of the season.
And before I get any trash talk from Habs fans for that last comment, I’ll point out the obvious myself… I hope to see more blue in the Leafs’ viz next year!
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