Last night's results
The Good:
The Bad: PHX won, NAS won.
Tonight's Games
ANA @ DAL -- The chances of these teams being tied for the last playoff spot at the end of the season are pretty good. So this would be a good time for whomever to step up. Go Stars. In regulation.
CGY @ SJS -- Go...Sharks? In regulation.
FLA @ CHI -- Go Panthers.
Now, the updated standings:
| Q | NHL | PTS | W% | PRJ | LSF | PB | +/- | TO 97 | GR | W! | SS | SSGR | GD | |
| 1 | 1 | VAN | 103 | 0.7055 | 115.7 | 103 | 43 | 16 | n/a | 9 | 43 | 1 | 1 | 66 |
| 2 | 2 | DET | 95 | 0.6507 | 106.7 | 102 | 51 | 8 | 1-8-0 | 9 | 39 | 3 | LAK | 28 |
| 3 | 3 | SJS | 92 | 0.6301 | 103.3 | 113 | 54 | 5 | 2-6-1 | 9 | 37 | -1 | 2 | 20 |
| 4 | 5 | LAK | 88 | 0.6027 | 98.8 | 101 | 58 | 1 | 4-4-1 | 9 | 33 | n/a | n/a | 22 |
| 5 | 7 | CHI | 86 | 0.5972 | 97.9 | 112 | 58 | 1 | 5-4-1 | 10 | 34 | -8 | CHI | 32 |
| 6 | 4 | PHX | 91 | 0.6067 | 99.5 | 107 | 59 | 0 | 3-4-0 | 7 | 36 | -2 | 1 | 7 |
| 7 | 8 | ANA | 85 | 0.5903 | 96.8 | 89 | 59 | 0 | 6-4-0 | 10 | 36 | 1 | 2 | -4 |
| 8 | 9 | DAL | 85 | 0.5903 | 96.8 | 88 | 59 | 0 | 6-4-0 | 10 | 33 | 3 | LAK | 1 |
| 9 | 6 | NAS | 88 | 0.5946 | 97.5 | 100 | 60 | -1 | 4-3-1 | 8 | 33 | 4 | LAK | 20 |
| 10 | 10 | CGY | 85 | 0.5667 | 92.9 | 90 | 65 | -6 | 6-1-0 | 7 | 30 | 2 | LAK | 11 |
| 11 | 12 | CBJ | 77 | 0.5274 | 86.5 | 79 | 69 | -10 | n/a | 9 | 29 | 3 | LAK | -24 |
| 12 | 11 | MIN | 78 | 0.5270 | 86.4 | 84 | 70 | -11 | n/a | 8 | 33 | 1 | LAK | -22 |
| 13 | 13 | STL | 73 | 0.5000 | 82.0 | 90 | 73 | -14 | n/a | 9 | 28 | -8 | STL | -14 |
| 14 | 14 | COL | 64 | 0.4444 | 72.9 | 95 | 80 | -21 | n/a | 10 | 23 | 6 | LAK | -51 |
| 15 | 15 | EDM | 56 | 0.3836 | 62.9 | 62 | 90 | -31 | n/a | 9 | 21 | 5 | LAK | -64 |
Click on the headers to sort.
KEY: Q is my standings, default sorted by points-blown (explanation of points-blown here). NHL is the official standings, via NHL.COM (ESPN has the tie-breakers wrong). PRJ is projected point total for 82 games. LSF is last season's final point total. PB is points-blown. +/- is the distance in points-blown above or below the 8th seed. TO 96 is the record needed to get to the presumed (by me) playoff-threshold. GR is games-remaining. W! is wins plus OT wins (the first tie-breaker). SS and SSGR are season series against the Kings (Kings’ points-earned vs. that team’s points-earned) and games remaining (team name in the SSGR column means that team has won the season series). 2 points for a Kings win, 1 for an OT or SO win, -1 for an OT or SO loss, -2 for a loss. GD is goal--differential.
Observations:
- Oh, before I start: yes, out of an overabundance of caution, I upped the playoff threshold to 97. Although I'm still comfortable at 96, I don't want to infect anyone with my rosy outlook.
- The Kings are 4 points-blown (and 4 official points) out of 1st in the Pacific.
- The Kings are one point-blown out of 9th place.
- The Kings are 3 official points out of 9th.
- The Kings have not gained any ground on Chicago in goal-differential, and have lost ground to San Jose and Nashville. Actually, forget about the CHI goal-differential thing; the Kings lost the season series against the Hawks, so would never get to the GD tie-breaker.
- A win against the Sharks tomorrow would give the Kings the lead in the season series, with one game left.
- CHI has 34 wins and LA, PHX and DAL have 33. Since the Kings stand a reasonable chance of ending up tied with one of these teams, it would be a good idea to win the first tie-breaker.
- As I said yesterday, I think the chances of a team missing the playoffs on a tie-breaker are pretty good.
- Not only does every point count, but every goal counts.
- The teams in the logjam need to be playing a 5-0 game the same way they would be playing a 1-1 game. Never take it easy. Never pass up a chance to drive up the score. The 9th goal in a 9-3 game might be the difference between making the playoffs and not.