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Sunday Night: The Good, The Bad, The Real Standings

Yesterday’s and Today’s Results

The Good:  Preds lost, Ducks lost, Wild half-lost.

The Bad:  Kings lost, Blues won, Coyotes won, Sharks won, Hawks won, Flames won.

The Doesn’t Matter: Avs lost, Canucks won.

That’s a bad weekend’s worth of results, but at least the Kings are still in the top 8. Between now and Wednesday night, STL, PHX and SJS all have back-to-backs, and the other six of our ten immediate rivals play once. The remaining rival, ANA, is our Wednesday night game. So everyone has a chance to blow at least two and maybe four points.

Tomorrow’s Games

  • CHI @ STL –– Go Blues.

Tuesday’s Games

  • PHX @ PHI — Go Flyers.
  • NAS @ CBJ — Go Jackets.
  • SJS @ DET — Go Wings.
  • COL @ STL — Go Avs.
  • EDM @ MIN — Go Oilers.
  • NJD @ DAL — Go Devils.
  • BOS @ CGY — Go Bruins.

Wednesday’s Games

  • SJS @ PIT — Go Pens.
  • PHX @ TBL — Go Lightning.
  • LAK @ ANA — GO KINGS!

Now, the updated standings:

Q ESPN PTS W% PRJ PB +/- TO 95 GR W! R:W L OT:W L SO:W L
1 1 VAN 85 0.7083 116.2 35 15 4-16-2 22 36 34 13 2 4 2 5
2 2 DET 80 0.6780 111.2 38 12 6-14-3 23 34 27 16 7 4 3 2
3 3 PHX 73 0.6083 99.8 47 3 10-10-2 22 29 28 19 1 6 3 3
4 4 SJS 72 0.6000 98.4 48 2 10-9-3 22 30 27 21 3 4 3 2
5 5 NAS 70 0.5932 97.3 48 2 11-9-3 23 25 25 20 0 5 6 3
6 9 MIN 68 0.5763 94.5 50 0 12-8-3 23 29 25 22 4 1 2 5
7 8 DAL 68 0.5763 94.5 50 0 12-8-3 23 26 22 22 4 2 5 4
8 7 LAK 68 0.5763 94.5 50 0 12-8-3 23 25 24 23 1 2 7 2
9 13 STL 63 0.5526 90.6 51 -1 15-8-2 25 24 22 21 2 4 3 5
10 6 CGY 70 0.5738 94.1 52 -2 11-7-3 21 25 23 22 2 3 6 5
11 10 ANA 68 0.5667 92.9 52 -2 12-7-3 22 28 25 24 3 2 4 2
12 11 CHI 66 0.5593 91.7 52 -2 13-7-3 23 26 24 23 2 2 4 4
13 12 CBJ 64 0.5517 90.5 52 -2 14-7-3 24 25 21 23 4 3 4 3
14 14 COL 57 0.4831 79.2 61 -11 18-3-2 23 22 17 27 5 7 3 0
15 15 EDM 46 0.3898 63.9 72 -22 n/a 23 18 16 32 2 1 1 7

Click on the column headers to sort.

KEY: Q is my standings, default sorted by points-blown (explanation of points-blown here). ESPN is the official standings, via ESPN. 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 regulationwins, OT:W is over-time wins, etc.).

Some observations:

  • Given the bad results of the weekend’s games, I’m surprised the Kings are still 7th (points-blown) and 8th (official) in the West.
  • The Kings are in a three-way tie for 6th by both measures, but lose the wins tie-breaker.
  • The Kings are 3 points-blown and 5 official points from 3rd.
  • They are 2 points-blown and 5 official points from 13th.
  • All eleven teams in the hunt for the 3rd to 8th spots are within 5 points-blown and 10 official points of each other. The points-blown numbers show that the race is even closer than the official standings indicate.
  • That’s because PHX and SJS — the teams at the top — have played the most games, while STL and CBJ — the teams at the bottom — have games in hand.
  • The Flames have played the most games of all, which is why they’re in a much more precarious place than their recent streak implies.

Talking Points