Last Night’s Results
The Good: STL lost, PHX lost, NAS half-lost, CBJ half-lost.
The Bad: CGY won, DAL won, SJS won.
The silver lining: SJS won in a shoot-out, which doesn’t count in the tie-breaker wins column.
Tonight’s Meaningful Games
MIN @ NYI – go Moulson.
CGY @ CHI – go regulation.
DET @ ANA – go Wings.
Now, the updated standings:
| Q | NHL | PTS | W% | PRJ | PB | +/- | TO 95 | GR | W! | R:W | L | OT:W | L | SO:W | L | |
| 1 | 1 | VAN | 89 | 0.6953 | 114.0 | 39 | 15 | 2-14-2 | 18 | 37 | 35 | 15 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 2 | 2 | DET | 84 | 0.6667 | 109.3 | 42 | 12 | 4-12-3 | 19 | 35 | 28 | 18 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | SJS | 80 | 0.6250 | 102.5 | 48 | 6 | 6-9-3 | 18 | 32 | 28 | 21 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| 4 | 6 | DAL | 74 | 0.5873 | 96.3 | 52 | 2 | 9-7-3 | 19 | 29 | 25 | 23 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 5 | 7 | CHI | 74 | 0.5873 | 96.3 | 52 | 2 | 9-7-3 | 19 | 29 | 27 | 23 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 6 | 8 | LAK | 74 | 0.5873 | 96.3 | 52 | 2 | 9-7-3 | 19 | 28 | 27 | 24 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| 7 | 4 | PHX | 76 | 0.5846 | 95.9 | 54 | 0 | 8-6-3 | 17 | 30 | 28 | 22 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| 8 | 10 | MIN | 72 | 0.5714 | 93.7 | 54 | 0 | 10-6-3 | 19 | 31 | 26 | 24 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 9 | 5 | CGY | 75 | 0.5769 | 94.6 | 55 | -1 | 9-6-2 | 17 | 27 | 25 | 23 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| 10 | 9 | NAS | 73 | 0.5703 | 93.5 | 55 | -1 | 10-6-2 | 18 | 26 | 26 | 23 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| 11 | 11 | ANA | 71 | 0.5635 | 92.4 | 55 | -1 | 11-6-2 | 19 | 29 | 26 | 25 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 12 | 12 | CBJ | 69 | 0.5565 | 91.3 | 55 | -1 | 12-6-2 | 20 | 27 | 23 | 24 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 13 | 13 | STL | 65 | 0.5159 | 84.6 | 61 | -7 | 14-3-2 | 19 | 25 | 23 | 26 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| 14 | 14 | COL | 60 | 0.4688 | 76.9 | 68 | -14 | n/a | 18 | 23 | 18 | 30 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 1 |
| 15 | 15 | EDM | 50 | 0.3906 | 64.1 | 78 | -24 | n/a | 18 | 19 | 17 | 35 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
Click on the headers to sort.
KEY: Q is my standings, default sorted by points-blown (explanation of points-blown here). NHL is the official standings, via NHL.COM. 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:
- The bulk of the log-jam is 4th-12th.
- Three points-blown separate 4th from 12th.
- COL is out. Can’t get to 95. (Yes, I know they’re not mathematically eliminated; but the point is: if they never lose again, it will still — at best — be a crap shoot whether they get in or not; therefore, they’re out.)
- STL is hanging by a thread.
- SJS is oh so slightly separating itself from the others.
- PHX and CGY are much worse off than they appear in the official standings.
- MIN, DAL and LAK are marginally better off than they appear in the official standings.