If anything, the NHL’s summer realignment should have made the playoff road more difficult in the East. Instead, the opposite seems to have occurred.
The math, assuming all teams are created equal, seems simple. Each conference in the NHL sends eight teams to the playoffs. That means that 57 percent (8-of-14) of Western teams will make the postseason, and only 50 percent (8-of-16) of Eastern teams will do so.
Therefore, for teams hoping to secure a playoff berth, the West was the place to be. Only that is not how it’s working early this season. The chart below shows the projected 82-game point totals for every NHL team, based on their current records:
Obviously, some of the numbers here are the unsustainable result of projecting a hot start over 82 games.
The all-time best NHL team, the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, finished with 132 points; no matter how much of a coaching genius Patrick Roy is he won’t goose the current Avalanche roster to a better finish than that. Likewise, the Buffalo Sabres probably won’t be worse than the expansion Thrashers (39 points) wer ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
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