From Busted Twigg: Standings projections - Carnac the Magnificent edition.
The NHL saw fit to schedule no games of significance to the Western Conference playoff race on Friday night. Fine. I'll just mail it in without waiting for any games to complete. <copy><paste> Now that was easy.
3. Los Angeles (99)
4. Chicago (104)
5. Nashville (101)
6. Detroit (98)
7. Dallas (96)
8. Phoenix (94, 31 ROW, 6pts h2h with COL)
9. Colorado (94, 31 ROW, 2pts h2h with PHX)
10. Calgary (93, 31 ROW)
11. San Jose (93, 30 ROW)
Since this leaves nothing new to talk about, I'll update my 8th place point projection graph. In this I plot the point total of the 8th place team (whoever it happens to be) and draw a simple linear model of the data out to the end of the regular season. The playoff line has been creeping up in the last few days, pointing pretty strongly to 95 points. This is not good for the Burgundy and Blue. They'll need 10 points in their final 6 games to have a chance. In those 6 games, they need at least 3 ROWs to hold on to any tiebreakers, and 2 of them better be against San Jose and Calgary to limit their points in this final stretch.
Editor's blurb:
There are various scenarios possible, but the Avs would need to go something like 5-1-0 or 4-0-2 over their last 6 games to make the playoffs. Impossible? No. But they need to channel some Budajian 15-1-2 type magic to make it happen.
Today, Saturday, is a HUGE day in the clusterfuck that is Western Conference playoff positioning. Every team the Avs are battling with for one of the last two spots will play today. The two biggest match ups (besides the Avs' game of course) is Calgary vs Dallas and SJ vs Phoenix. Here's to deciding things in regulation. Go Avs!