Ok, I fibbed…. I didn’t do the NHL overview last night, but I’m going to go with it now. With just a couple of weeks to go until the lengthy break for the Olympics, here are my views on how the Eastern and Western conferences are shaping up. For those of you who aren’t fully aware of how the teams earn their way into the playoff rounds, I’ll tell you that there are two conferences, the Eastern and the Western, that have 15 teams in each. These 15 teams are sub-divided into three 5-team divisions of teams that are geographically associated. Eight teams will advance to the playoffs, the winners of each division earn the top three seeds, then the next five-highest winning teams fill out the elimination rounds.
Starting with the Western Conference, San Jose and Chicago are competing for first-place, only one point apart and trading position back and forth. If one of them stumbles, like taking a simple 3- or 4-game losing streak, then the other can run with it. San Jose has been a strong team for several years now and it is no surprise that they are on top where they have been finishing regularly. But the surprise to the outside world is the high-flying Chicago Blackhawks. The fans in Chicago aren’t surprised because they have been watching the careful construction of a successful team by the owners and their plans are paying off with a solid winning team. But for most of us, it comes as a surprise because Chicago has had a run of many years of floundering and poor results.
Another surprise is the Phoenix Coyotes. A perennial bottom-dweller who started this season like they were going to settle in there again. But after some turmoil of getting new ownership – after the season had already started – they have hired themselves a good coach and they are winning regularly, sitting now in 4th place. On the other hand, the struggles of the Detroit Red Wings have everybody wondering what is going on with the team that was in the Stanley Cup finals last year. They have been passed by and will undoubtedly have a house-cleaning after this season. The Wings are sitting in 8th place, holding the final playoff spot by only one point.
AP
Over in the Eastern Conference the competition seem to be more widely spread out between two groups, those that are fighting for the top slots and a large group who are knotted up in the middle with eight teams that are only two points apart competing for the last three playoff positions. That is the race to watch from here on out. If you have the chance to catch any of them on tv, you will see some good games whenever any of these teams play each other. CLICK HERE to see the NHL official conference standings chart that is updated every morning, and you will see some surprises there, too.
More than just a couple, in fact. The Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers jump right off the page as you’re looking, and then way down in 12th place are the Boston Bruins who have really been struggling this month, losing nine of their last ten games. And yet they can leap up to 6th place with just one more win than the six teams just ahead of them. The Boston fans have got to be tearing their hair out this week with that long losing streak going on. You think the trade offers are buzzing up there?
Up at the top of the Eastern Conf. the Buffalo Sabres have been very tenacious all season long and are almost shoo-ins for the playoffs despite their lack of headling-making play. The New Jersey Devils are camped in 2nd place which is no surprise. They are probably the most consistent team for solid play in the entire league, always on top year in and year out. Right now, the leading team in the East is the Washington Capitals who are riding a runaway freight by winning their 9th-consecutive game last night. While they are six points ahead of the Devils – and 23 points ahead of the 8th-place team – their 78 points leaves them still one point behind San Jose for the league’s bragging rights of best finish.
If you want to see how your local team is doing, click HERE to see the conference standings and click HERE to check out the divisional standings. When I look at those, I look at two columns to get an idea on how a team is doing for the season. I watch the regulation-loss totals (not including the overtime, OTL, losses) because I believe that is good indicator. And I check out the Away record. You almost have to maintain a 50% win record in the away games to remain successful.
While we’re on the ice, let’s take a look at the Top Ten Goals from last week:
Ok, it’s getting late. Let’s get this equipment checked out. We definitely need some more coffee, so I’ll get that started. See you back in the day room.
Also on FireGeezer…
- Morning Lineup – April 1 – April 1, 2012
- Morning Lineup – December 29 – December 29, 2010
- Morning Lineup – November 26 – November 26, 2011
- Morning Lineup – April 13 – April 13, 2011
