Standings By The Numbers

3 games in 15 days. 3 games in 15 days?!? This is hockey season, right? I've been forced to watch scrubs like the Blues on NHL Network just to get my fix. With San Jose FINALLY returning to the ice tonight, I figured it was a good time to take a glance at the standings. And here's the internet's only non-biaised measure of NHL Ranking, The Chum Bucket's Percentage of Points system for the Western Conference:

Embedding spreadsheets is a bitch

A few things that jump out from this and ESPN's traditional standings:

1. Boston has a % of PTS of 0.788, so rest your fears, Sharks fans - we're still on top.
2. Detroit has been a less-than-pedestrian 4-4-2 in their last 10 games. San Jose has a 4 point lead with 3 games in hand.
3. Believe it or not, but the 2nd best team in the Pacific is the Dallas Stars. Going 7-1-2 in your last 10 games will do that. Still 22 points behind San Jose though. So they can still go fuck themselves for all I care.
4. The % of Points ranking really drives home that log jam at the bottom of the standings. Seeds 7-9 are in a dead heat. The bottom 7 teams in the conference are each 7 points or fewer out of the 8th seed. Contrast that to the Eastern Conference, where just 2 teams are in that range (Carolina & Pittsburgh).

What does it all mean? I don't know, but this killed about 30 minutes while I wait for the Sharks to hit the ice, and that's what really matters in the end.