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Kings-centric guide to what you want (FREE INSIDE! The real Western Conference standings)

Last night’s results

  • The Good: nothing.
  • The Bad: PHX won, CGY won.
  • The Doesn’t Matter: COL lost, VAN lost.

Tonight’s Games

  • SJS @ NAS — If the Preds lose, they drop to a tie with the Kings in points-blown; if the Sharks lose, the Kings widen the gap. I’m rooting for the Preds, IN REGULATION. But I’ll be happy as long as there’s no OT.
  • VAN @ MIN — Go Canucks! A Wild loss brings them even with the Kings in points-blown.
  • DAL @ EDM — Go Oil! The Stars are three official points and three points-blown ahead of the Kings. A Stars loss would bring them within one point-blown.

Q OFF. PTS W% PRJ PB +/- to95 GR R/OTW R/OT/SO
1 1 VAN 81 0.7105 116.5 33 14 6-17-2 25 34 32-12/2-4/2-5
2 2 DET 74 0.6607 108.4 38 9 9-14-3 26 32 25-16/7-4/2-2
3 4 DAL 68 0.6071 99.6 44 3 12-11-3 26 26 22-19/4-2/5-4
4 6 NAS 67 0.5982 98.1 45 2 13-11-2 26 24 24-19/0-4/6-3
5 9 MIN 65 0.5909 96.9 45 2 14-11-2 27 28 24-20/4-1/2-4
6 5 ANA 68 0.5965 97.8 46 1 12-10-3 25 28 25-21/3-2/4-2
7 3 PHX 69 0.5948 97.6 47 0 12-10-2 24 27 26-19/1-6/3-3
8 10 LAK 65 0.5804 95.2 47 0 14-10-2 26 25 24-22/1-2/6-1
9 7 SJS 66 0.5789 94.9 48 -1 13-9-3 25 27 25-21/2-4/3-2
10 11 CHI 62 0.5536 90.8 50 -3 15-8-3 26 25 23-22/2-2/3-4
11 12 CBJ 61 0.5446 89.3 51 -4 16-8-2 26 24 20-23/4-3/4-2
12 13 STL 59 0.5364 88.0 51 -4 17-8-2 27 22 20-21/2-4/3-5
13 8 CGY 66 0.5593 91.7 52 -5 13-7-3 23 23 21-22/2-3/6-5
14 14 COL 56 0.4912 80.6 58 -11 18-4-3 25 22 17-26/5-6/3-0
15 15 EDM 40 0.3571 58.6 72 -25 n/a 26 15 13-32/2-1/1-7


KEY: Q is my standings, sorted by points-blown (explanation of points-blown here). OFF. is the official (ESPN) standings. PRJ is projected point total for 82 games. PB is points-blown. TO95 is the record needed to get to the presumed (by me) playoff-threshold. GR is games-remaining. R/OTW is wins plus OT wins (the first tie-breaker). R/OT/SO is the team’s record broken down into wins-losses in regulation/overtime/shoot-out. So, for example, LAK is 24-22 in regulation, 1-2 in OT and 6-1 in the shoot-out.

Some observations:


  • The Kings are 10th in the official (ESPN) standings, but 8th by W% and tied for 7th in points-blown. A loss by MIN tonight will nudge the Kings up to a three-way tie for 6th in points-blown, with PHX and MIN.
  • Sorting by points-blown, SJS is worse than they appear in the official standings (down two seeds), and PHX and CGY are much worse off (down four and five seeds, respectively).
  • MIN is four seeds higher in points-blown, and LAK and NAS are both two seeds higher.
  • One reason CGY and PHX are artificially high in the official standings is that they’ve played more games than everyone else. CGY has 23 games left. PHX, 24.
  • The Kings, meanwhile, have a game in hand on both SJS and ANA.
  • Eight points-blown separate 3rd from 13th.
  • Two points-blown separate 4th from 8th.
  • Dallas rejoins the blue box, which contains the Kings’ immediate rivals for the last FIVE SIX playoff spots.
And here’s the season-series grid for the Kings:

1 2 3 4 5 6 SS W+/- GD
STL -2 -2 -2 -6 3 41
CGY -2 2 1 1 2 28
NAS 2 2 -2 2 1 7
CBJ -2 2 0 1 40
CHI -2 -2 -2 -2 -8 0 5
DAL 2 2 -2 2 -1 23
PHX -2 -2 -2 2 -4 -2 22
SJS -2 2 -2 1 -1 -2 17
ANA -2 2 0 -3 22
MIN 1 -1 -1 -1 -3 23

KEY: SS shows the Kings’ season series advantage/disadvantage in points; W+/- shows the Kings’ win/OTwin advantage/disadvantage in wins; GD shows the Kings’ advantage/disadvantage in goal-differential (note that the number in the GD column is not that team’s goal-differential; it is the difference between the Kings goal-differential and that team’s goal-differential). In each case, the Kings are compared to the team in the left-most column. Only the ten blue-box teams are included. Columns marked 1-6 indicate the results of each game the Kings have played against the team in question. 2 points for a win, -2 points for a loss, 1 point for an OT/SOW, -1 point for an OT/SOL. The reason for the 1/-1 valuation is that the first tie-breaker is head-to-head points-earned. If LAK beats MIN in OT, they get 2 real points, but MIN gets 1, thus a net positive of +1 when the two teams are compared. A dash (-) in columns 5 or 6 indicates that the Kings only play that team 4 times. The chart is sorted in order of tie-breakers. Wins first, then season-series, then goal-differential.

Talking Points