How Many Kings Teams Had More Points After 56 Games?

… It’s silly to compare this team to two of the three best regular seasons in Kings’ history. Those past teams didn’t get extra points for winning a post-game coin flip or points for losing. You know better.

Kings have three loser points this year. if you subtract them, well, they’re still better at this point than every other team in franchise history except for, off the top of my head, 2002, 1991, 1981 and 1975. Fifth best, instead of second best, out of 43, is still meaningful.

In any case, you can’t just isolate one issue (in your case, the loser point) as if it somehow invalidates any comparison of teams from different eras. There are myriad differences between the 70s and 2010. Players now are bigger, stronger, the equipment is more substantial, there’s less fighting, more head injuries, younger players, more teams, better talent now because of European players, faster harder shots, technically superior goaltending. You could easily make the argument that the 74-75 Kings benefited greatly from the watered down post-expansion crappiness of the talent pool. Were the players better on average then or worse? That’s a big debate. Was their more or less parity? Another debate (p.s. the answer is, there was less). The idea of comparing point totals is to look at how well a team did relative to its peers. If you think that it was much harder to earn points back then, I suggest you look at the standings for that season. The Kings finished 4th out of 18 teams. This year, at this point, they are 6th out of 30. That sounds about right, doesn’t it, since the 74/75 Kings finished with 105 points and this year’s team is on pace for about 101.

Also, by the way, if you take this year’s standings and subtract the loser points (i.e. making them losses, not ties) the Kings rise in the standings, from 6th to 4th or 5th.

… I noticed that you didn’t bother to touch on my other point, which was the shootout, or the "post-game coin flip", from which the Kings have earned an extra 8 points, most in the NHL. I don’t blame you; it wasn’t convenient for your argument, so you left it out.

If you want to make an honest comparison here, it isn’t hard to do: The Kings would have 11 ties at this juncture, which combined with their 26 legitimate wins would give them a record of 26-19-11. That isn’t bad. It’s good for 63 points. However, it’s a good ways below the 76 in ’75 or the 71 in ’81. The Kings have outscored their opponents by, what, 11 goals? Again, not bad, but not anywhere near the ’75, ’81, or ’91 teams.

As for the labored dialogue on the quality of play in ’75, I know of this as well; I didn’t see where it was germane to the discussion, but OK. I suppose you needed to move the goalposts a bit, or try a misdirect? I’m not sure. Anyway, I think there were about 22 or 23 total "major league" teams in the mid-70s with the NHL and WHA, somewhere around there. There’s 30 today, but there are far more players from outside North America as well. The game has obviously changed, but was it more watered down then as opposed to now? Probably a little more, yeah. Was there more parity then? Absolutely not. Not with the Flyers and Canadiens in the league in ’75. No one is that dominant today.

I don’t mind comparing the Kings’ place in the standings this season with seasons past, but it’s still weak. In ’75, the Kings finished only 8 points behind the three teams tied for #1. This season’s Kings, even with the amazing shootout record, are still 7 points out of third place with 26 games to go, and double figures behind the top two in the league. It’s misleading to compare the teams – you have to shave the truth quite a bit to get there.

I’d put forth a rebuttal that it’s not too early to make comparisons, but…Rogie! I’m too giddy at that neato pic of Rogie.