NHL Pacing 1.29.08

Click image to enlarge.

Here is the latest. The very top and the very bottom are about the same as last time, but the middle 27 teams are all mixed up.

Toronto makes an appearance in the bottom three. As disappointing as this might be for fans of the club, I still reckon it's a good thing in the long run.

Out West, last time it was the Northwest that had four teams in playoff position, this time it's the Pacific. Earlier this year, that honor belonged to the Central. All I know is that beyond Detroit and San Jose the battles in the Western Conference are going to be intense.

Only a month ago the Capitals occupied the #28 spot and showed up in the "Bottom Three" grouping. This time, they're seeded 3rd in the East. It just goes to show you that in the Southeast Division you always have hope.

NHL Pacing 12.18.07

Click image to enlarge.

We're nearly 40% of the way through the NHL's regular season. Ottawa and Detroit have long-since emerged as heavy favorites in their respective conferences and Los Angeles is eyeing themselves a Stamkos.

The changes over the last month have been dramatic. The Devils have soared and St. Louis has climbed over three teams in their division. Meanwhile, the Islanders have plummeted.

The Northwest Division is the most interesting. They've had no change in the order of their standings over the last month (save for the technicality at the top), but they now find themselves with four teams in playoff position, when last month they had just two. It's been a good month in the northwest.

Last, Toronto fans can at least appreciate the fact that they play in the division that has the most "Points For" of any division in hockey.

NHL Pacing 11.15.07

Click image to enlarge.

We are now 21.2% of the way through the NHL season and to mark the occasion, I've worked up another version of the Pacing Spreadsheet. This spreadsheet take each team's performance to date and projects that over the remainder of the season.

Be sure to note the Central Division. If every team continued to play at the present pace, the Central would send all five of its teams to the playoffs. Obviously, I don't imagine that will happen, but it's neat anyway.

I used the last version of this spreadsheet as a template for this one and while I was re-working it, I was able to note which teams were doing better than before and which ones were doing worse. Pittsburgh and Dallas are two teams that I noticed have fallen on tough times. The Rangers and Nashville, on the other hand, have improved a good deal.

NHL Pacing 10.31.07

Click image to enlarge.

Since the NHL schedule-makers have seen fit to have different teams with more games-played than others over the course of the season, I came up with a pacing spreadsheet to keep track of it all. The spreadsheet's value will be more apparent as the playoff races heat up, but it never hurts to take an early look at the state of the league.

The "Playoff Matchups" and "Bottom Three" are included for fun. The basic function of the chart is to compare each team's points-earned per game-played so far and then extend that out over the course of the season (x82). It's far from perfect, but then again so are the current standings which show the Leafs in front of Boston despite the Bruins three games in hand.