As the NHL hits the 20 game point I just had to look at the real rankings to see what playoff distortion implications may be coming. What follows are the real standings top eight with shootout wins and over time losses worth zero points. After all, this is the way it works in the playoffs, an over time loss is a loss and the skills competition thank god is not used to decide the Cup champ and hopefully never will.
Last year, surprisingly, there were no significant implications when the real standings were compared with the bonus point or published standings in that all eight teams in each conference would have made it in regardless, albeit the order was affected.
This year, at least so far, it is shaping up not to be the case at least out West where, as of February 28th, Detroit falls out and Phoenix draws in. Also of note is the .500 mark with all playoff ranked teams over .500 in the East while in the West just four have a winning percentage this season. Chicago is off to an incredible start but one can't help but wonder if they are peaking two months too soon or if their solid net minding will vanish when needed most.
Western Ranking
1. Chicago .875
2. Anaheim .750
3. Vancouver .579
4. Los Angeles .555
5. St. Louis .500
6. Minnesota .500
7. Nashville .476
8. Phoenix .475
Eastern Ranking
1. Boston .735
2. Montreal .675
3. Pittsburgh .595
4. Toronto .591
5. New Jersey .550
6. Carolina .526
7. Winnipeg .525
8. Ottawa .524
The standings are expressed as a winning percentage calculated by removing the extra points for OT losses and shoot out wins with that number divided by the total number of points available to each team based on the number of games each team has played.
In the East, Carolina would jump to third as a division leader and the Habs would drop to fourth place based on division leaders.
I am not surprised that Florida is absent or that the Leafs and Habs are doing well as noted here prior to the start of the season. http://www.examiner.com/article/nhl-upset-predictions-for-2013
Chicago and Boston are the class of the league at least thus far but Boston has a brutal schedule the rest of the way having played fewer games than any other team must now play 31 games in the next 58 days and one wonders how exhausted they will be when playoff time rolls around.
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