The Good: Kings win, Nucks half-lose, Hawks half-lose,
The Bad: Preds win, Yotes win, Wings win, Stars win, Blues win.
So?
A record of 4-8-0 will be enough to get the Kings in. I wouldn't mind getting those 8 points sooner rather than later.
Here are the standings* (if you haven't seen my version of standings before, scroll to the bottom for the explanation):
- Chicago Blackhawks 45 (1) +8
- San Jose Sharks 46 (2) +7
- Vancouver Canucks 52 (3) +1
- Phoenix Coyotes 49 (4) +4
- Los Angeles Kings 53 (5) --
- Colorado Avalanche 54 (7) -1
- Nashville Predators 57 (6) -4
- Detroit Red Wings 59 (8) -6
- Calgary Flames 61 (9) -8
- St. Louis Blues 65 (10) -12
- Dallas Stars 65 (11) -12
- Anaheim Ducks 66 (12) -13
- Minnesota Wild 68 (13) -15
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Columbus Blue Jackets Edmonton Oilers
And here's the record each team needs from here on, to get to the assumed (by me) magical point total of 95:
- San Jose Sharks**
- Chicago Blackhawks**
- Phoenix Coyotes**
- Vancouver Canucks 1-8-1
- Nashville Predators 3-6-0
- Los Angeles Kings 4-8-0
- Colorado Avalanche 4-7-1
- Detroit Red Wings 6-5-0
- Calgary Flames 7-4-0
- St. Louis Blues 9-2-0
- Dallas Stars 10-2-0
- Anaheim Ducks 10-1-1
- Minnesota Wild 10-0-1
Columbus Blue JacketsEdmonton Oilers
*standings in points-blown explained: "points blown" means, literally, how many points your team could have had, but squandered; a loss is 2 blown points, a "half-loss" (OTL/SOL) is one blown point, a win is zero blown points. The resulting standings are golf-like, the fewer blown points the better. Two points "awarded" for every loss, one point for every OTL/SOL. Again, lowest point total is best. Number in parentheses is the official standings (via ESPN). Last number (+/-) is number of points (in my system) ahead or behind Los Angeles. Because it's a Kings-centric universe.
**already hit 95 points. They can lose the rest of their games now, and should, if they want to avoid Detroit in the first round.