Talisman Red's NHL Computer Ratings
Welcome! This is my rough attempt at a computer rating that can, among other things, come somewhat close to predicting final game scores.
The actual computer rating, which describes team performance based on games played to date, is found under the "Rating" column. To determine a hypothetical margin of victory, use the "Points" column (just subtract the teams in question) and add the home advantage, which is shown below and is usually about 0.25 to 0.5 goals.
In the Predictions section, all those games already have home advantage added in, and also show a predicted total.
Shootouts and overtimes make predicting scores tricky, and to deal with that all games that go to a shootout will be recorded as ties. This will, hopefully, improve the accuracy of the predictions.
(Everything is here on a single, scrollable page now. This reduces the need for the Javascript tabs, which were nice but unneeded. Scrapers should not be impacted. Links to original text files are in the Description section.)
Ratings
Talisman Red Computer Ratings
Through Games Of Monday 26 October 2026
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Rank Team W L T Rating BCS Points Conf.
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1 Carolina 9 3 1 4.22 1 11.08 North
2 Boston 9 3 2.85 2 10.88 East
3 Colorado 6 5 1 2.59 4 10.87 Central
4 Dallas 6 3 2 2.38 3 10.74 Central
5 Minnesota 8 5 2.10 6 10.64 Central
6 Tampa Bay 7 4 1.92 5 10.50 East
7 Washington 6 4 1.49 7 10.31 North
8 Utah 8 4 1.48 8 10.34 Central
9 Las Vegas 7 5 1 1.29 11 10.41 West
10 Ottawa 6 4 2 1.11 10 10.31 East
11 Edmonton 7 3 2 0.99 9 10.23 West
12 Montreal 4 5 2 0.96 12 10.23 East
13 Buffalo 4 6 1 0.75 14 10.17 East
14 New Jersey 7 4 0.41 13 9.97 North
15 St Louis 5 6 0.19 15 10.10 Central
16 Pittsburgh 4 6 2 0.03 19 10.16 North
17 NY Islanders 5 5 1 -0.28 17 9.93 North
18 Nashville 4 5 2 -0.32 20 9.97 Central
19 Toronto 7 6 1 -0.50 21 9.93 East
20 NY Rangers 7 7 -0.58 24 10.00 North
21 Florida 6 6 -0.80 18 9.69 East
22 San Jose 5 5 2 -0.86 16 9.56 West
23 Seattle 5 5 2 -1.11 23 9.68 West
24 Anaheim 5 6 -1.16 22 9.59 West
25 Philadelphia 3 9 1 -1.23 26 9.71 North
26 Columbus 3 5 1 -1.35 28 9.65 North
27 Detroit 3 5 4 -1.41 25 9.60 East
28 Winnipeg 4 7 -1.50 29 9.68 Central
29 Los Angeles 3 7 -1.86 30 9.58 West
30 Calgary 5 6 -2.19 27 9.17 West
31 Chicago 3 8 -3.99 31 8.84 Central
32 Vancouver 2 11 -5.61 32 8.50 West
Explanations:
These ratings use a method I developed many years ago, which
is a blend of two separate components: one for predicting scores
and another that considers only winning and losing. The two
components are then combined into an overall rating, which is
how the teams are sorted.
For a score-agnostic ranking, use the "BCS" column. And if
you want to predict margin of victory in a hypothetical matchup,
just use the "Points" column. Add in home advantage, if
appropriate.
Home advantage in this set of rankings: 0.17
Predictions
PREDICTIONS FOR UPCOMING GAMES
Date Away Team Home Team Total Prediction
--------- ------------------------ ------------------------ ----- --------------
27-Oct-26 Buffalo San Jose 7.4 AWAY by -0.44
27-Oct-26 New Jersey Dallas 5.8 HOME by 0.95
27-Oct-26 Boston Carolina 6.6 HOME by 0.37
27-Oct-26 Vancouver Anaheim 7.3 HOME by 1.26
27-Oct-26 Ottawa Las Vegas 6.0 HOME by 0.28
27-Oct-26 Minnesota Utah 6.9 AWAY by -0.13
27-Oct-26 Florida Winnipeg 5.5 HOME by 0.16
27-Oct-26 NY Islanders Nashville 5.3 HOME by 0.21
27-Oct-26 Montreal St Louis 6.0 HOME by 0.04
27-Oct-26 Los Angeles Chicago 5.9 AWAY by -0.58
27-Oct-26 Columbus Philadelphia 4.7 HOME by 0.23
28-Oct-26 Calgary Edmonton 6.8 HOME by 1.22
28-Oct-26 Toronto Seattle 7.6 AWAY by -0.08
28-Oct-26 New Jersey Colorado 6.9 HOME by 1.08
28-Oct-26 Philadelphia Washington 5.5 HOME by 0.77
29-Oct-26 Vancouver San Jose 7.3 HOME by 1.23
29-Oct-26 Ottawa Los Angeles 5.0 AWAY by -0.55
29-Oct-26 Buffalo Anaheim 7.4 AWAY by -0.41
29-Oct-26 NY Islanders Minnesota 5.2 HOME by 0.88
29-Oct-26 Montreal Dallas 6.1 HOME by 0.69
29-Oct-26 Washington Nashville 6.0 AWAY by -0.16
29-Oct-26 Boston St Louis 6.0 AWAY by -0.61
29-Oct-26 Columbus Carolina 5.9 HOME by 1.60
29-Oct-26 Utah Pittsburgh 6.6 AWAY by -0.00
29-Oct-26 Winnipeg Tampa Bay 5.0 HOME by 0.99
29-Oct-26 Chicago Detroit 6.0 HOME by 0.93
30-Oct-26 Seattle Calgary 6.0 AWAY by -0.33
30-Oct-26 Winnipeg Florida 5.6 HOME by 0.18
30-Oct-26 New Jersey Las Vegas 6.2 HOME by 0.62
31-Oct-26 Calgary Colorado 6.7 HOME by 1.87
31-Oct-26 Toronto Vancouver 8.0 AWAY by -1.26
31-Oct-26 Chicago Boston 5.7 HOME by 2.22
31-Oct-26 Columbus Dallas 5.4 HOME by 1.26
31-Oct-26 Pittsburgh Montreal 6.5 HOME by 0.24
31-Oct-26 Ottawa San Jose 6.4 AWAY by -0.58
31-Oct-26 Buffalo Los Angeles 6.0 AWAY by -0.41
31-Oct-26 Edmonton NY Islanders 6.5 AWAY by -0.13
31-Oct-26 Tampa Bay Nashville 6.6 AWAY by -0.36
31-Oct-26 St Louis Detroit 6.6 AWAY by -0.33
01-Nov-26 Edmonton NY Rangers 7.2 AWAY by -0.06
01-Nov-26 Ottawa Anaheim 6.4 AWAY by -0.55
01-Nov-26 Utah Philadelphia 5.3 AWAY by -0.46
01-Nov-26 Minnesota Washington 6.3 AWAY by -0.16
01-Nov-26 Winnipeg Carolina 5.6 HOME by 1.57
Ratings by Division
Teams are sorted by computer ranking (in parentheses), not necessarily by win-loss percentage. As on the front page, overtime games get recorded as ties to make the predictions hopefully more accurate. Playoff games between division teams end up getting counted here, too.
Talisman Red's Hockey Ratings
Through Games of Monday 26 October 2026
Standings by Conference (NHL)
Teams are sorted by their overall ranking and not by their
winning percentage, in or out of conference.
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Conf Rank 1 East Average 0.61
Rank All Team CW CL CT W L T Rating Non-Conf SOS
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1 2 Boston 0 1 9 3 2.85 -0.22 23
2 6 Tampa Bay 0 0 7 4 1.92 -0.04 19
3 10 Ottawa 3 1 6 4 2 1.11 -0.49 26
4 12 Montreal 2 0 2 4 5 2 0.96 -0.13 21
5 13 Buffalo 2 1 1 4 6 1 0.75 0.13 17
6 19 Toronto 0 3 7 6 1 -0.50 0.04 18
7 21 Florida 0 2 6 6 -0.80 -0.96 30
8 27 Detroit 1 0 1 3 5 4 -1.41 -1.28 31
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Conf Rank 3 North Average 0.34
Rank All Team CW CL CT W L T Rating Non-Conf SOS
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1 1 Carolina 3 1 9 3 1 4.22 -1.95 32
2 7 Washington 4 1 6 4 1.49 0.13 16
3 14 New Jersey 2 2 7 4 0.41 -0.69 28
4 16 Pittsburgh 1 1 1 4 6 2 0.03 0.23 15
5 17 NY Islanders 1 1 5 5 1 -0.28 -0.91 29
6 20 NY Rangers 1 3 7 7 -0.58 -0.13 20
7 25 Philadelphia 0 4 3 9 1 -1.23 0.74 8
8 26 Columbus 1 0 1 3 5 1 -1.35 0.64 11
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Conf Rank 2 Central Average 0.37
Rank All Team CW CL CT W L T Rating Non-Conf SOS
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1 3 Colorado 2 2 1 6 5 1 2.59 -0.49 27
2 4 Dallas 2 3 1 6 3 2 2.38 0.50 12
3 5 Minnesota 2 1 8 5 2.10 -0.33 25
4 8 Utah 1 0 8 4 1.48 0.40 13
5 15 St Louis 2 4 5 6 0.19 0.88 5
6 18 Nashville 3 1 4 5 2 -0.32 0.70 10
7 28 Winnipeg 2 3 4 7 -1.50 0.92 4
8 31 Chicago 2 2 3 8 -3.99 0.88 6
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Conf Rank 4 West Average -1.31
Rank All Team CW CL CT W L T Rating Non-Conf SOS
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1 9 Las Vegas 4 1 7 5 1 1.29 -0.24 24
2 11 Edmonton 5 1 7 3 2 0.99 1.23 2
3 22 San Jose 1 1 5 5 2 -0.86 0.73 9
4 23 Seattle 2 2 5 5 2 -1.11 0.27 14
5 24 Anaheim 2 2 5 6 -1.16 -0.16 22
6 29 Los Angeles 0 3 3 7 -1.86 0.81 7
7 30 Calgary 1 5 5 6 -2.19 1.40 1
8 32 Vancouver 2 2 2 11 -5.61 1.09 3
Division Rankings
The average computer rating of all teams in a division is shown here.
Talisman Red's Hockey Ratings
Through Games of Monday 26 October 2026
Conference Rankings
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Rank Conference Avg. Rating Var
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1 East 0.61 +- 0.7
2 Central 0.37 +- 1.1
3 North 0.34 +- 0.9
4 West -1.31 +- 1.1
Explanation:
The simple average of all teams in a conference is shown
here. The 'var' column is half of the standard deviation
of those teams, which is not the best way but a simple-
enough way of describing the reasonableness of using a
single number to describe that conference's strength.
Description
Original Text Files
Feel free to download these; if you use them elsewhere, give credit to talismanred.com.
- Rankings
- Division Standings (but sorted by computer rating)
- Game Predictions
What is this about?
Computer ratings are the starting point for Vegas oddsmakers, and have traditionally done reasonably well at predicting game winners. On this page, I share my own formula, which I've been producing for one sport or another for about 20 years. If you're familiar with ratings you've probably heard of the others: Sagarin, Massey, and more.
So it's just a math formula?
Yep, that's all that computer ratings are. You can do it this way, or you can do like they do for college sports and do a human "poll" (coaches, writers, whoever).
The formula here is one that I developed quite a few years ago to try and "compete" with all the other folks who are doing it. That's where the predictions come from -- incorporating historical games and trying to use those to figure out what will happen next. It includes scores, dates, and locations, but no other information. No information about injuries, pace or speed of the game, penalties, etc. Those things *do* matter, but they aren't factored in here.
Are the predictions any good?
Great question, and the answer depends on the sport:
- In the NBA: in 2023-24 my system predicted 64.2% of game winners correctly
- In college football in 2023, 71.5% correct
- In college basketball in 2023-24, 70.4% correct
My suspicion is that in the NHL, since won-lost records are not nearly as spread out as in football, that the predictions are in the 65 percent range. And that, while comparable to other systems, it's probably less accurate than the Vegas oddsmakers. But you would expect that -- you can't beat an added human touch!
Where I've seen value is in the over-under predictions. When those deviate far away from Vegas (which is usually 5.5, but sometimes 5 or 6), that's often a sign that something is worth investigating. I've had mild betting success with those.
Who are you, anyway?
I have a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and am currently a faculty member at Indiana University in Bloomington. In addition to lots of teaching, I have research interests in the broad areas of thunderstorms and numerical weather prediction (forecasting using computers).
Contact me using this email form if you have questions or non-hateful comments.