There are many tight races in the NHL as the season hits its home stretch, but they have more to do with playoff positioning than figuring out which teams are going to make the playoffs.
It's straight forward in the Western Conference, where seven of the eight playoff spots are spoken for at this point.
The final spot, currently occupied by the Minnesota Wild, figures to be a knock-down, drag-out fight to the finish between the Wild and the Colorado Avalanche.
Both teams have 74 points going into Tuesday's schedule, but the Wild get the edge in the standings because they have played 69 games while the Avs have played 70.
NHL standings favor the team having games in hand, but once the season is completed, the tiebreaker becomes regulation and overtime wins (ROW in the NHL.com standings). The league gives those wins more status and credence than shootout wins—a sharp decision on the league's part—and Colorado has 32 ROW wins compared to 31 for Minnesota.
This battle is likely to come down to the final week of the season when the Wild go to Winnipeg before closing the sea ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Steve Silverman
NHL Playoff Standings 2016: Predicting Which Teams Will Fall Short of Postseason
March 15th, 2016 by Steve Silverman Leave a reply »
Advertisement