The West is Unbelievably Close This Year

[egroen 384]

Just taking a look at the standings, and I am incredibly thankful the Wings have a decent lead in the West. Pretty much every other team is going to be biting their nails all season.

Only 9 points separate 2nd and last place.

2 measley points separate 2nd and 10th!!! Yikes!

A lot more breathing room in the East...

11 pts separate 2nd and 9th

21 pts from 2nd to last.

[ShadowDRW 3]

Seems like one team is always on a decent streak in the Pacific and the Northwest will probably be between the Avalanche and Canucks.

But really doesn't matter to me because this feels like one of those years.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

At the end of the year, I hope to start a thread titled, "How the West Was Won"

Couldn't resist, even though I didn't like the film that much.

[dropkickshanahans 463]

Good thing they sprung ahead getting the points now with this month ahead of the team, although I feel confident they'll come out of December unscathed despite the 4 back-to-backs due to many home games these next couple weeks. It's the 22nd-29th that'll be tough.

[dobbles 252]

i think a lot of it is just coincidence. i mean that by a matter of games played causing teams to look better or worse simply because of luck. while the wings are the one team with a bit of a cushion, just think how far ahead they would be if they werent behind in games played. the hawks are a good example of the opposite. they have helped clog up the points race but if you look at winning percentage they aren't really near most of those teams but have played tons of games. i think things will continue to sort themselves out over the next month and return things to normal. obviously the loser point causes the races to be tight in general, but i don't see the season being any different once we get into the new year

[Konnan511 1,736]

If you're a halfway decent team in the East, you'll have a much easier time because of how crappy most the teams are over there.

Edited December 4, 2010 by Konnan511

[Konnan511 1,736]

Projected standing on current rate of points being earned.

[WpgMikos 17]

Interesting that the Ducks are sitting in 8th with a goal differential of -13 while the Wings are a cool +23.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

It just further shows how stupid it is that you get rewarded for losing in overtime.

I personally like the overtime format, I like shootouts. I can easily be fine with going back to win-loss-tie format but currently overtime and shootout itself isn't the problem. If you don't like them, cool, there's plenty of people in here who have disliked how overtime and the shootout is setup and they have shown very legitmate reasons why. Not here to argue that.

My main beef is the point system. It's so stupid you get rewarded for losing. Zero points for a loss at any point in a game, no questions asked. Thay way you weed out the teams that just get into the playoffs and probably don't deserve to be there just because they had to rely more on skills/shootouts to get by.

Edited December 4, 2010 by SouthernWingsFan

[Konnan511 1,736]

It just further shows how stupid it is that you get rewarded for losing in overtime.

I personally like the overtime format, I like shootouts. I can easily be fine with going back to win-loss-tie format but currently overtime and shootout itself isn't the problem. If you don't like them, cool, there's plenty of people in here who have disliked how overtime and the shootout is setup and they have shown very legitmate reasons why. Not here to argue that.

My main beef is the point system. It's so stupid you get rewarded for losing. Zero points for a loss at any point in a game, no questions asked. Thay way you weed out the teams that just get into the playoffs and probably don't deserve to be there just because they had to rely more on skills/shootouts to get by.

This. Except I do think you should get a point for a SOL. If you can get a SO for a SOL that ended with a 0-0 score, you should be able to get a point out of a hard fought 65 minutes of play. The 65 minutes is all team play while the SO is individual.

[dat's sick 1,002]

The West seems to be getting tighter and tighter with each passing year.. a team like San Jose, not really THAT much worse than last year, are going to be struggling to make the playoffs this year..

Wings are in a good position right now but they've had a good schedule so far too. Lose a couple of games in a row and things will look different quite fast.