I'd like to inject my opinion into the debate on including margin of victory
into TCHCR, but I must take issue with including it as a measure of strength.
I believe there are several reasons which weigh against its inclusion.
 
1. Including margin of victory favors offensively-talented, rather than
defensive-minded teams.  In other words, a team that routinely scores goals at
a rapid clip would benefit, since it would be more likely to participate in
"blow-outs".  Conversely the defensive-oriented team, stressing positional
play, strong goaltending, puck control, etc. would be penalized for its dearth
of scoring--a 2-0 shutout would be subordinate to a 9-5 goal party.
 
2. Margin of victory penalizes conferences which include closely-talented
teams, since those teams would be more prone toward 1 or 2 goal victories.  A
good team in a lackluster conference would receive an unwarranted advantage
because the rest of the conference's teams were so inept.
 
3. Teams that have a lot of 1 goal victories on their record are not
necessarily weaker than teams with several 4 or 5 goal margins of victory.
In fact the team that can maintain a one goal lead through the third period
may be the strongest team of all--especially at play-off time.
 
Since this is my first foray in submitting an article, I look forward from
hearing from all you college hockey gurus out there on the list.
 
Brian Morris
Albany, NY (RPI territory)
Colgate '78