Thursday’s results:
The Good: Kings win, Stars lose, Avs lose, Nucks lose, Ducks lose, Blues lose, oh, and Simmonds, Moller, Schenn, Loktionov, Voynov, Bernier, Hickey, Teubert, Clifford, Richardson, Parse, Johnson, Brown, Williams, Frolov, Stoll and Handzus are STILL KINGS.
The Bad: Preds win, Sharks win, Wild win.
So?
Tonight the Kings jumped past both Phoenix and Vancouver into 3rd, although they are still tied with Phoenix, and of course they aren’t in 3rd in the official standings because of the automatic 1-3 seeds. Anaheim and St. Louis, both a full 7 games (14 blown-points) behind the Kings, are teetering on the brink of joining Edmonton and Columbus in playoff-impossibility-land. Good things happen when you go 10-1 in your last eleven.
[the explanation of what the hell this is, is at the bottom]
- San Jose Sharks 31 (1) +10
- Chicago Blackhawks 34 (2) +7
- Los Angeles Kings 41 (4) —
- Phoenix Coyotes 41 (5) 0
- Vancouver Canucks 42 (3) -1
- Colorado Avalanche 44 (6) -3
- Nashville Predators 46 (7) -5
- Calgary Flames 50 (8) -9
- Detroit Red Wings 50 (9) -9
- Dallas Stars 53 (10) -12
- Minnesota Wild 54 (12) -13
- Anaheim Ducks 55 (11) -14
- St. Louis Blues 55 (13) -14
- Columbus Blue Jackets 63 (14) -22
- Edmonton Oilers 70 (15) -29
These are standings in points-blown.
Two points “awarded” for every loss, one point for every OTL/SOL. Lowest point total is best. Number in parentheses is the official standings (via ESPN). Last number (+/-) is number of points (in my system) ahead or behind Los Angeles. Because it’s a Kings-centric universe.
Tie breaker is games-played, except that the winner of the tie breaker is the team who has played more games. If this seems counter-intuitive, consider this: A team with a 10-2 record is better than a team with a 2-2 record, who is, in turn better than a team that’s 0-2.