Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
I wouldn't hold the Cane's 99 points higher based on a tougher conference.
The Flames went .844 against the Metro and .643 against the Central (the two best divisions). Combined that's .730
Carolina went .571 against the tougher divisions.
Calgary actually did the poorest against their own division only posting .586 while the Cane's feasted on the Pacific at .656
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But how a team does against a particular conference can he attributed to small sample size.
At the end of the day, the Canes had a tougher schedule, as you play more games against teams in your own division. The Flames played lots of games against the 4 worse teams in the West. That's 20% of their entire schedule. The fact that Calgary may have played poorly against their own division (by comparison) is a testament to how good they are overall.
Now, I don't think that makes up for the difference in 8 points or, more importantly, the 40 goals difference in goal differential. But Carolina is a good team, but they didn't have as good a season as the Flames, even considering the difference in their schedules.
Not that that matters much in the playoffs.