Now that the Flames have played their 20th game of the year, I thought I'd try something a bit different.
It's been nice to see the team so high up in the league-wide standings (6th tonight! Yeah baby!
), but part of that comes from having played a lot of games early. Most teams have games in hand. I thought I'd take the different number of games played out of the picture, and look at each team's record after its 20th game. So I took a few minutes to whomp up a spreadsheet.
So far, eight teams have played their 20th game of the season. Seven played those games last night. San Jose played theirs on the 16th (and have since lost to Buffalo). Here are the results for those eight:
Code:
Team Game 20 W L OT P ROW GF GA Diff Home Away Own Div Vs East Vs West
Pittsburgh 11/24 14 4 2 30 12 72 46 26 6-2-1 8-2-1 6-0-1 9-3-2 5-1-0
Montreal 11/18 14 5 1 29 10 55 51 4 8-3-0 6-2-1 6-1-0 10-2-0 4-3-1
Tampa Bay 11/18 13 5 2 28 12 73 54 19 7-2-1 6-3-1 3-0-1 8-2-1 5-3-1
Nashville 11/22 13 5 2 28 11 57 42 15 7-1-1 6-4-1 6-2-1 3-2-0 10-3-2
NY Islanders 11/22 14 6 0 28 10 68 57 11 6-2-0 8-4-0 5-1-0 8-3-0 6-3-0
St. Louis 11/22 13 6 1 27 11 53 41 12 8-3-0 5-3-1 4-1-0 6-3-0 7-3-1
Vancouver 11/20 13 6 1 27 11 61 60 1 5-3-1 8-3-0 7-2-1 4-1-0 9-5-1
Anaheim 11/18 11 4 5 27 9 54 50 4 5-2-3 6-2-2 1-1-4 5-2-1 6-2-4
CALGARY 11/18 12 6 2 26 10 63 53 10 5-2-2 7-4-0 3-1-0 5-4-2 7-2-0
Los Angeles 11/20 11 5 4 26 10 53 44 9 10-2-1 1-3-3 3-1-2 4-3-2 7-2-2
Detroit 11/22 10 5 5 25 10 55 49 6 6-2-2 4-3-3 3-3-4 7-4-5 3-1-0
Chicago 11/22 12 7 1 25 9 62 40 22 7-3-1 5-4-0 3-3-0 6-3-0 6-4-1
Minnesota 11/24 12 8 0 24 11 58 44 14 7-1-0 5-7-0 5-0-0 5-6-0 7-2-0
Boston 11/18 12 8 0 24 11 53 49 4 8-4-0 4-4-0 6-4-0 9-6-0 3-2-0
Winnipeg 11/18 10 7 3 23 8 40 43 -3 4-3-1 6-4-2 3-2-1 6-2-2 4-5-1
Toronto 11/20 10 8 2 22 10 63 62 1 6-6-0 4-2-2 4-4-1 8-6-1 2-2-1
San Jose 11/16 10 8 2 22 8 56 53 3 2-3-0 8-5-2 2-1-0 5-6-1 5-2-1
Ottawa 11/24 9 7 4 22 8 55 54 1 5-2-3 4-5-1 3-3-0 5-3-1 4-4-3
NY Rangers 11/23 9 7 4 22 8 57 58 -1 7-4-3 2-3-1 4-2-1 6-6-1 3-1-3
Florida 11/25 8 6 6 22 7 42 51 -9 4-4-1 4-2-5 1-1-2 3-3-4 5-3-2
Washington 11/22 9 8 3 21 8 56 54 2 4-4-3 5-4-0 3-1-0 5-4-1 4-4-2
New Jersey 11/21 9 9 2 20 8 49 56 -7 3-3-2 6-6-0 3-2-1 6-4-1 3-5-1
Philadelphia 11/24 8 9 3 19 8 57 61 -4 6-3-2 2-6-1 2-3-1 4-7-1 4-2-1
Arizona 11/20 8 10 2 18 7 49 62 -13 4-4-1 4-6-1 5-1-0 3-4-1 5-6-1
Dallas 11/20 7 9 4 18 6 56 68 -12 2-5-4 5-4-0 0-5-2 3-2-1 4-7-3
Colorado 11/20 6 9 5 17 4 49 64 -15 3-4-2 3-5-3 0-2-2 5-5-2 1-4-3
Carolina 11/22 6 11 3 15 6 48 62 -14 4-3-1 2-8-2 2-2-2 2-3-3 4-8-0
Edmonton 11/21 6 12 2 14 6 48 67 -19 4-7-1 2-5-1 0-7-1 6-3-1 0-9-1
Columbus 11/22 6 12 2 14 6 49 72 -23 3-6-1 3-6-1 2-4-1 3-9-2 3-3-0
Buffalo 11/18 5 13 2 12 3 34 69 -35 3-6-2 2-7-0 2-3-2 3-6-2 2-7-0
The Flames are middle of the pack, but to be fair, that's a pretty good pack – only one really bad team out of the 8. Second best goal differential of the bunch.
I note that the Sharks had a truly brutal schedule to start the year – 15 of their first 20 on the road. They should be due to move up in the standings when they get some home games in.
If anybody is interested, I can come back and update this post to add each team as they play their 20th game, until all 30 are in.
Update, Nov. 20: Six more teams have played their 20th game. By calgarygeologist's request, I have added each team's record vs. opponents in its own division, and vs. the Eastern and Western Conferences. (I haven't broken down all four divisions, however.)
No thanks to nhl.com's webgoblins, however. Several of the teams that hit 20 GP tonight have gibbled divisional standings on the NHL website. If you add up their divisional records, you get only 19 games. In one case, the divisional records add up correctly but the conference records don't. So I had to look at each team's game results and add them up by hand. Sheesh.
Calgary 5th of 14 so far. (They win the second tie-breaker with L.A., having a better goal differential.)
Update, Nov. 21: Added New Jersey and Edmonton. Calgary 5th of 16.
In breaking news which I’m sure you have never heard before, Edmonton Is No Good.
Update, Nov. 22: Added 7 more teams. Calgary 8th of 23.
Nov. 23: Calgary 8th of 25.
Nov. 27: Sorry for the delay; busy with other things last night. All 30 teams are in now, with Calgary 9th, Pittsburgh (not Montreal) 1st, and Edmonton no good.