Are Canadian professional hockey teams consistent over time? Here are the wins per season (out of 82 games) for the six Canadian teams in the National Hockey League (NHL). For comparison, in 1995-1996, the top team in the Eastern Conference was the Pittsburgh Penguins with 49 wins and the top team in the Western Conference was the Detroit Red Wings with 62 wins. In 2005-2006, the top team in the Eastern Conference was the Ottawa Senators with 52 wins, and the top team in the Western Conference was, once again, Detroit with 58 wins. (The Winnipeg Jets moved and became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996, so we didn't include them here.)
a. What is the independent variable and what are its levels? What is the dependent variable?
b. Is this a between-groups or within-groups design? Explain.
c. Why might it be preferable to use a nonparametric hypothesis test for these data?
d. Conduct all six steps of hypothesis testing for a Wilcoxon signed-rank test for matched pairs.
e. How would you present these statistics in a journal article?