The weekend’s result
The Good: SJS lost, STL lost, NAS lost, ANA lost, MIN half-lost.
The Bad: Kings lost, CHI won, PHX won, DAL won, CGY won.
Today’s games
DAL @ LAK – a win in regulation would put the Kings a point above the Stars in official points, tied in tie-breaker wins and 3-1-0 in the season series with two games left. That’s important because then the worst that could happen would be the Kings lose the last two games and end up tied in head-to-head with the Stars, which would invoke the next tie-breaker; that’s goal-differential, at which the Kings are currently topping the Stars by 24 goals.
CBJ @ STL – Go Blues.
Now, the updated standings:
| Q | NHL | PTS | W% | PRJ | PB | +/- | TO 95 | GR | W! | R:W | L | OT:W | L | SO:W | L | |
| 1 | 1 | VAN | 93 | 0.6940 | 113.8 | 41 | 16 | 0-13-2 | 15 | 39 | 37 | 16 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 2 | 2 | DET | 86 | 0.6515 | 106.8 | 46 | 11 | 3-10-3 | 16 | 35 | 28 | 19 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 3 | 3 | SJS | 82 | 0.6212 | 101.9 | 50 | 7 | 5-8-3 | 16 | 33 | 29 | 22 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| 4 | 4 | CHI | 80 | 0.6061 | 99.4 | 52 | 5 | 6-7-3 | 16 | 32 | 30 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 5 | 7 | DAL | 77 | 0.5923 | 97.1 | 53 | 4 | 8-7-2 | 17 | 30 | 26 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| 6 | 8 | LAK | 76 | 0.5846 | 95.9 | 54 | 3 | 8-6-3 | 17 | 29 | 28 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| 7 | 6 | PHX | 78 | 0.5821 | 95.5 | 56 | 1 | 7-5-3 | 15 | 30 | 28 | 23 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | 5 | CGY | 79 | 0.5809 | 95.3 | 57 | 0 | 7-5-2 | 14 | 29 | 27 | 24 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| 9 | 9 | MIN | 75 | 0.5682 | 93.2 | 57 | 0 | 9-5-2 | 16 | 32 | 27 | 25 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 10 | 10 | ANA | 75 | 0.5682 | 93.2 | 57 | 0 | 9-5-2 | 16 | 31 | 25 | 26 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 11 | 11 | NAS | 75 | 0.5682 | 93.2 | 57 | 0 | 9-5-2 | 16 | 27 | 27 | 24 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| 12 | 12 | CBJ | 69 | 0.5391 | 88.4 | 59 | -2 | 12-4-2 | 18 | 27 | 23 | 26 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 13 | 13 | STL | 65 | 0.5000 | 82.0 | 65 | -8 | 14-1-2 | 17 | 25 | 23 | 28 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 14 | 14 | COL | 60 | 0.4615 | 75.7 | 70 | -13 | n/a | 17 | 23 | 18 | 31 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 1 |
| 15 | 15 | EDM | 54 | 0.4091 | 67.1 | 78 | -21 | n/a | 16 | 21 | 19 | 35 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
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. PB is points-blown. +/- is the distance in points-blown above or below the 8th seed. TO 95 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). R, OT and SO are regulation, over-time and shoot-out, and W and L after each indicates wins and losses for each of those three categories (e.g. R:W is regulation wins, OT:W is over-time wins, etc.).
Some observations:
- 7 official points (also 7 points-blown) separate 3rd from 11th.
- The Kings are 6 official points or 4 points-blown behind 3rd seed SJS.
- The only team that has more games left than the Kings is the Blue Jackets.
- PHX has two fewer games left than LA, and CGY has three fewer, which is why they suffer in the points-blown standings.
- Dallas, so far, has been doing great with their schedule of doom. They are 4-0-1 in their last five, against DET, NAS, PHX, ANA and SJS. It doesn’t get any easier, though, as, starting tonight for 12 days, they have games every other night: LAK, CGY, MIN, LAK, SJS, CHI and PHI. Then they have three days off.
- Coyotes over that same stretch: VAN, CGY, ANA, CGY, EDM, VAN, CHI.
- Ducks: NYR, COL, PHX, STL, LAK, CGY.
- Wild: COL, NAS, DAL, VAN, SJS, CBJ, MTL.
- Preds: SJS, MIN, COL, LAK, BOS, DET, BUF.
- Oh, and the Kings: DAL, DET, CBJ, DAL, NAS, STL, ANA.
- The Jackets, who are 0-3-1 in their last 4 games, need to finish the season 12-4-2 if they’re going to get to 95 points. I don’t see them going 8 games above .500.