Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
And how you can conclude that the strength of their division/conference has no bearing on that is bewildering to me. You are saying the stats say the Avalanche are worse. But if the stats are skewed by quality of competition than that makes it a questionable assumption.
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Run the numbers. By any standard, the Avalanche this year are one of the worst teams in recent NHL history.
The team played 30 games against Central Division opponents, and were 8-21-1 in those games. They played 20 games against Pacific opponents, and were 2-16-2.
Suppose you go back and put them in the Pacific instead, so they play 10 extra games in our division. Suppose you cherrypick the schedule so that you remove 10 of the games they actually lost to Central Division opponents – knowing which 10 to choose, which of course is impossible in reality. Suppose (which is also pretty much impossible) that they actually win all 10 of the added games against the Pacific opponents. They
still finish the season with only 68 points. In the actual season that was played, the 29th-place team got 69. And that is the
maximum possible change in standings that could result from a different strength of schedule. It still doesn't get them out of 30th, unless it also results in Vancouver losing more games.
The Avs were godawful. They had a losing record against every division, and it wasn't even close. Strength of schedule is precisely zero percent of the reason they finished dead last.