Early in the 1995–1996 NHL hockey season, players and coaches observed with great interest an apparent drop in the number of goals scored so far during that season, compared to scoring over the same number of games during the previous season. For each team, the number of goals in the 1995–1996 season versus the same stage of the 1994–1995 season are listed in data file XR14018. At the 0.05 level, could the drop in goals be simply due to chance, or does it appear that something may have happened between seasons to reduce teams’ scoring power? Identify and interpret the p-value for the test.
A computer and statistical software.