Tonight’s Results
-
The (very) Good: Ducks lose, Hawks lose.
-
The Bad: Wild win, Jackets win, Blues win.
-
The Doesn’t Matter:
Blues win, Wings win.
Tomorrow’s Games
- LAK @ NYI — Go Kings!
- ANA @ STL — St. Louis is seven official points behind the Kings, Ducks, Stars and Flames, but they have three games in hand. In points-blown, St. Louis is only one point behind. I must root for the Ducks to lose, but please-please-please no Bettman points!
- PHX @ NAS — these two teams are separated by one official point and one point-blown. I don’t care who wins. Go regulation!
- DAL @ VAN — The Stars are tied with the Kings in almost every way, points, points-blown, games-played, W%…but they are one win ahead in the first tie-breaker. Go Canucks!
- COL @ SJS — The Sharks are in 5th no matter which way you sort; they’re even with the Kings in PB, 2 ahead in official points. Either way, they must lose. Go Avs!
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 | 83 | 0.7034 | 115.4 | 35 | 14 | 5-16-2 | 23 | 35 | 33 | 13 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| 2 | 2 | DET | 78 | 0.6724 | 110.3 | 38 | 11 | 7-14-3 | 24 | 34 | 27 | 16 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 | NAS | 70 | 0.6034 | 99.0 | 46 | 3 | 11-10-3 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 3 |
| 4 | 3 | PHX | 71 | 0.6017 | 98.7 | 47 | 2 | 11-10-2 | 23 | 28 | 27 | 19 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 | SJS | 70 | 0.5932 | 97.3 | 48 | 1 | 11-9-3 | 23 | 29 | 26 | 21 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 6 | 7 | DAL | 68 | 0.5862 | 96.1 | 48 | 1 | 12-9-3 | 24 | 26 | 22 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 7 | 6 | LAK | 68 | 0.5862 | 96.1 | 48 | 1 | 12-9-3 | 24 | 25 | 24 | 22 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| 8 | 10 | MIN | 67 | 0.5776 | 94.7 | 49 | 0 | 13-9-2 | 24 | 29 | 25 | 22 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 9 | 8 | ANA | 68 | 0.5763 | 94.5 | 50 | -1 | 12-8-3 | 23 | 28 | 25 | 23 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | 13 | STL | 61 | 0.5446 | 89.3 | 51 | -2 | 16-8-2 | 26 | 23 | 21 | 21 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 11 | 9 | CGY | 68 | 0.5667 | 92.9 | 52 | -3 | 12-7-3 | 22 | 24 | 22 | 22 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 |
| 12 | 11 | CHI | 64 | 0.5517 | 90.5 | 52 | -3 | 14-7-3 | 24 | 26 | 24 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 13 | 12 | CBJ | 64 | 0.5517 | 90.5 | 52 | -3 | 14-7-3 | 24 | 25 | 21 | 23 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| 14 | 14 | COL | 57 | 0.4914 | 80.6 | 59 | -10 | 18-4-2 | 24 | 22 | 17 | 26 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| 15 | 15 | EDM | 44 | 0.3793 | 62.2 | 72 | -23 | n/a | 24 | 17 | 15 | 32 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
Click on the 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 regulation wins, OT:W is over-time wins, etc.).
Some observations:
- Pretty sure ESPN is wrong to put the Kings in 6th and the Stars in 7th. I think they think the Kings have more wins, but (I think) they failed to subtract the SOWs from the totals.
- There are eight teams separated by 4 official ESPN points (67-71 points). However, 3rd to 13th (11 teams) are separated by 6 points-blown. i.e. practically nothing. We’re still in a “you’re hot you’re in, you’re not you’re out” mode.
- CGY has the fewest games left (22), followed by PHX, SJS and ANA (23), then LAK, NAS, DAL, CBJ, CHI and MIN (24) and STL (26).
- CHI’s next ten days is a brutal run of PIT, STL, NAS, PHX, MIN and CGY. The team you took the cup from, and five teams in the dogfight.
- But the worst schedule, by a mile, belongs to the Stars. Seriously, here’s the rest of their schedule. They start out with VAN, NJD, DET, NAS, PHX, ANA, then they catch a break with — no wait, never mind, it’s SJS, LAK, CGY, MIN, LAK, SJS…after which, time to relax because it’s, holy hell it’s CHI and PHI, those pantywaists, and then ANA, NAS, PHX come back for seconds, and then SJS, LAK, ANA show up for thirds…and if there’s anyone left standing on the Stars roster, they can close out the season with CBJ, COL, COL (the angry yet relaxed “we’re out of the playoffs so we’re just going to ruin your life” teams) and then one last game against the town they abandoned: MIN. That’s literally 20 games in a row that just suck for them. By the time they get to the last four games, if they’re anywhere near a playoff spot, they will have beaten a lot of good teams to get there.