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Friday Precap: The Real Western Conference Standings

Q OFF. PTS W% PRJ PB to94 GP W
1 1 VAN 75 0.721 118 29 8-19-3 52 31
2 2 DET 68 0.680 112 32 12-18-2 50 29
3 3 DAL 65 0.625 103 39 13-14-3 52 26
4 4 NAS 61 0.587 96 43 15-12-3 52 21
5 7 MIN 59 0.578 95 43 16-12-3 51 26
6 5 SJS 60 0.577 95 44 16-12-2 52 24
7 9 CHI 58 0.569 93 44 17-12-2 51 24
8 6 ANA 60 0.566 93 46 16-11-2 53 24
9 10 LAK 58 0.558 91 46 17-11-2 52 23
10 8 PHX 59 0.557 91 47 16-10-3 53 23
11 12 COL 56 0.549 90 46 18-11-2 51 22
12 11 CGY 58 0.547 90 48 17-10-2 53 20
13 13 STL 51 0.520 85 47 20-10-3 49 19
14 14 CBJ 51 0.510 84 49 20-9-3 50 19
15 15 EDM 38 0.380 62 62 27-3-2 50 14

ANA and PHX are still over-valued by the official standings, and MIN and CHI are better than they look. Five points separate 4th from 12th (official). Seven teams have either 58, 59 or 60 points. The Kings are three points out of 4th place, and two points out of 12th.Big game tonight: CHI v. VAN. Go Canucks! A Hawk loss would drop them into a tie with the Kings, according to me.

By the way, here are the “blue box” teams (4th through 12th) sorted by non-SO wins (the first tie-breaker):

PTS W
MIN 59 26
SJS 60 24
ANA 60 24
CHI 58 24
PHX 59 23
LAK 58 23
COL 56 22
NAS 61 21
CGY 58 20

And here is a chart showing the Kings’ season series against the other western teams:

1 2 3 4 5 6 SS
EDM 1 2 2 5
COL 2 2 4
DET 1 2 3
VAN 1 2 3
DAL 2 2 -2 2
NAS 2 2 -2 2
ANA -2 2 0
CBJ -2 2 0
CGY -2 2 0
MIN 1 -1 -1 -1
SJS -2 2 -2 1 -1
PHX -2 -2 -2 2 -4
STL -2 -2 -2 -6
CHI -2 -2 -2 -2 -8

The Kings play each team 4 or 6 times. I assigned 2 points for a win, 1 point for an over-time or shoot-out win, -1 point for an over-time or shoot-out loss, and -2 points for a loss. The reason for the 1 or -1 point: when, for example, the Kings beat the Wings in OT, the Kings get 2 standings points and the Wings get 1, thus their record head-to-head against the Wings is a net +1. Season series is the second tie-breaker, we’d better hope we’re not tied with Chicago (or, probably, Phoenix) for 8th at the end of the year.

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