But first, the good and the bad from the last two nights:
The Good: Kings win, Avs lose, Preds lose, Blues lose, Sharks half-lose, Jackets lose, Coyotes lose, Hawks lose.
The Bad: Flames win, Coyotes win, Ducks win, Wild win.
That's a great pair of days for LA. The Kings win, plus 6.5 good vs 4 bad outcomes.
The real Western Conference standings:
| Q | OFF. | PTS | W% | PRJ | PB | to94 | GP | W | W%* | Q* | |
| 1 | 1 | VAN | 71 | 0.710 | 116 | 29 | 10-19-3 | 50 | 29 | 0.620 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | DET | 66 | 0.673 | 110 | 32 | 13-17-3 | 49 | 28 | 0.612 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | DAL | 65 | 0.650 | 107 | 35 | 13-16-3 | 50 | 26 | 0.600 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | NAS | 60 | 0.600 | 98 | 40 | 16-13-3 | 50 | 21 | 0.540 | 5 |
| 5 | 6 | PHX | 59 | 0.578 | 95 | 43 | 16-12-3 | 51 | 23 | 0.490 | 11 |
| 6 | 5 | ANA | 60 | 0.577 | 95 | 44 | 16-11-3 | 52 | 24 | 0.538 | 6 |
| 7 | 9 | MIN | 55 | 0.561 | 92 | 43 | 18-12-3 | 49 | 25 | 0.510 | 8 |
| 8 | 7 | CHI | 56 | 0.560 | 92 | 44 | 18-11-3 | 50 | 23 | 0.520 | 7 |
| 9 | 9 | COL | 56 | 0.560 | 92 | 44 | 18-11-3 | 50 | 22 | 0.500 | 9 |
| 10 | 8 | SJS | 56 | 0.560 | 92 | 44 | 18-11-3 | 50 | 22 | 0.500 | 10 |
| 11 | 11 | LAK | 55 | 0.550 | 90 | 45 | 18-11-3 | 50 | 22 | 0.540 | 4 |
| 12 | 12 | CGY | 54 | 0.529 | 87 | 48 | 19-9-3 | 51 | 19 | 0.471 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | STL | 51 | 0.520 | 85 | 47 | 20-10-3 | 49 | 19 | 0.449 | 14 |
| 14 | 13 | CBJ | 51 | 0.520 | 85 | 47 | 20-10-3 | 49 | 19 | 0.469 | 13 |
| 15 | 15 | EDM | 38 | 0.388 | 64 | 60 | 27-3-3 | 49 | 14 | 0.306 | 15 |
How to decode the standings:
Q is my rank, sorted by win percentage. Off. is the official standings (as rendered by ESPN). PRJ is projected final points. PB is points-blown (two points for a loss, one point for an OTSOL; lower score is better). TO94 is the record needed to get to 94 points (the presumed -- by me -- playoff threshold). GP is games played. W is wins.
I added two new columns (actually they're old columns I deleted for awhile and are now back in a new form). W%* is the team's win percentage if there was no Bettman point, no point for losing in OT/SO. Q* is the rank a team would have with that W%*.
I include it because I noticed last night that the Kings, eliminating the Bettman point, leap from 11th to 4th. The Coyotes suffer a huge drop. Everyone else stays in the same neighborhood.
Some other observations:
- Since Calgary continues to win and Nashville continues to lose, I had to add them to the "blue box," which is my way of indicating the teams fighting it out for the last (now) 5 playoff spots. We were looking only at 5-8, but 4th is now in play.
- Seven of those eleven teams are within one (budgeted, future) loss of each other.
- 4th and 14th are separated by 9 points, 7 points-blown, and 4 (budgeted, future) losses.
- The Kings are, no matter how you slice it, no more than a point out of 8th place.
- By one of my previous yardsticks (the one which determines whether or not the Kings should be sellers at the deadline), the Kings now need a record of 6-5-1. But better is better, since 6-5-1 before the deadline would require 13-7 to close out the season. I would love for the Kings to put together an 8-3-1 stretch going up to the deadline, lessening the post-deadline burden to 11-9. But that's just me. The Kings have put themselves in an exponentially better place by winning these last three.
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