The Los Angeles Kings have now played 20 games, which is enough to start judging their progress. So without further ado, let’s get to the standings.
What is Points blown?
For those of you who don’t know, Points-Blown was created by Kings fan and former Jewels From the Crown moderator Quisp as a means of better understanding the standings by controlling for differences in games played. Here’s how Quisp described the system in a post on his website, McSorley’s Stick.
Points-blown refers to the number of points a team could have earned, but did not. They are points-squandered. You get two PBs for a loss, and one PB for an OT/SOL. The lower your total, the better. Like golf. Or cholesterol.
Why is this a handy way to look at the standings, and not just a confusing pain in the ass? Well, maybe it’s not. Your mileage may vary, but for me it’s like this: W% is an excellent indicator of a team’s record, but I find it difficult to conceptualize the difference between (for example), a .575 team and a .593 team. “All we need is another 18/1000s of a [something or other] and we’ll be tied! Go team!”
But just looking at points doesn’t work either, because the schedule is wacky and teams have different numbers of games-played. Anaheim and Chicago at one point had played 5 or 6 more games than everyone else. That skews the standings. And I hate giving Anaheim any credit.
And in case you’re somewhat of a masochist like me, here’s a full breakdown for LA’s points blown.
As you can see, the Kings are a pretty good team and it’s kind of amazing what a couple of points can do.