[Sylvanfan]

Good stuff Simmer. I think for the most part the top of the Howe standings are more or less how I thought they would be. I had my team pegged to be the 5th or 6th best at the start of the season. Once I play a few more games I'll see if I'm right. Might not be a bad idea to finish 6th though instead of 4th or 5th. I certainly don't want to go in as a 8 seed again.

Dallas so far is the biggest surprise to me. I'll be honest I didn't see them in the playoff picture at all. Just makes what was already a brutally tough Division with the 3 California teams that much tougher. I figured that Central would be pretty close between Chicago, St.Louis, and Detroit, but thought Chicago might have an edge there.

As for the Howe, I thought the Rangers looked like a playoff team in the pre season but they have surprised me with how well they've played. Pittsburgh started off rough but seem to be figuring things out. The South East is actually a pretty interesting Division with the Canes, Thrashers, Capitals, and Lightning all pretty close.

Will be interesting to bench mark this and see how things hold up as the season progresses. Now that every game has a winner I wonder if it will be tougher to make up ground on other teams.