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:
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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