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(Re-)Introducing Points-Blown Standings

Posted on by Robert P

[Note: This is a Fanpost written by sd_Baby-B, but I’m publishing it in order to get the table working correctly. The fanpost editor doesn’t like tables apparently.]

Hello JFTC faithful!

Different readers throughout the season have shared how much they miss having Points-Blown standings to obsess over. 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.

Unfortunately for us Quisp hasn’t had the time to update his points-blown standings since November. Fortunately for us the formula is basic algebra, it isn’t too difficult to produce a poor person’s version of the visually appealing charts Quisp used to produce, and avid JFTC commenter and Kings superfan ilovewhiskey was easily persuaded to post points-blown fanposts for us.
Now, without further ado, introducing the JFTC reader managed Points-Blown Standings!

Western Conference Points Blown

WESTERN GP W L OT P ROW POINTS BLOWN
X – ST. LOUIS 72 49 16 7 105 41 39
X – SAN JOSE 74 47 18 9 103 37 45
X – ANAHEIM 71 46 18 7 99 44 43
CHICAGO 73 42 16 15 99 37 47
COLORADO 72 45 21 6 96 41 48
LOS ANGELES 73 42 25 6 90 34 56
MINNESOTA 72 37 24 11 85 30 59
PHOENIX 73 35 26 12 82 30 64
DALLAS 72 34 27 11 79 31 65
VANCOUVER 73 33 30 10 76 28 70
NASHVILLE 73 31 31 11 73 30 73
WINNIPEG 73 32 32 9 73 26 73
CALGARY 72 30 35 7 67 24 77
EDMONTON 73 25 39 9 59 22 87

Eastern Conference Points Blown

EASTERN GP W L OT P ROW POINTS BLOWN
BOSTON 72 49 17 6 104 47 40
PITTSBURGH 72 46 21 5 97 41 47
MONTRÉAL 74 41 26 7 89 35 59
TAMPA BAY 72 39 24 9 87 33 57
NY RANGERS 73 40 29 4 84 36 62
PHILADELPHIA 71 38 26 7 83 35 59
COLUMBUS 72 37 29 6 80 32 64
DETROIT 72 33 25 14 80 28 64
WASHINGTON 73 34 27 12 80 25 66
TORONTO 74 36 30 8 80 27 68
NEW JERSEY 72 31 28 13 75 31 69
OTTAWA 72 29 29 14 72 25 72
CAROLINA 72 31 32 9 71 30 73
NY ISLANDERS 72 28 35 9 65 22 79
FLORIDA 73 27 38 8 62 19 84
BUFFALO 72 20 44 8 48 14 96

Link to Google doc version

This will ideally be a community-managed project. Please use the comments to post any questions or offer any suggestions for how to better format the above table. I’m not thinking of this as a long term replacement for Quisp’s posts, but as a substitute until he starts blogging again. If anyone else wants to adopt this project and create and manage something fancier than what Google Docs can create, feel free!

Talking Points