March 24th West Playoff Race Update

by Brandon Bibb on Mar 24, 2009 7:58 AM CDT in News Comment 4 comments

The Stars say they're not quitting on this season. So I'm not going to quit on these updates, either.

Pos	Team	W	L	OTL	GP	GR	Pts	PtPct	PrjPts	MaxPts	PtsRq'd	PtPctRq'd
1	San Jose	48	14	10	72	10	106	0.736	121	126	---	---
2	Detroit	48	16	9	73	9	105	0.719	118	123	---	---
3	Calgary	42	24	6	72	10	90	0.625	103	110	---	---
4	Chicago	38	22	11	71	11	87	0.613	100	109	1	0.032
5	Vancouver	38	24	9	71	11	85	0.599	98	107	3	0.112
6	Columbus	38	28	6	72	10	82	0.569	93	102	6	0.285
7	Edmonton	35	28	9	72	10	79	0.549	90	99	9	0.435
8	Nashville	35	30	7	72	10	77	0.535	88	97	11	0.535
9	Anaheim	35	31	6	72	10	76	0.528	87	96	12	0.585
10	Minnesota	34	30	8	72	10	76	0.528	87	96	12	0.585
11	St. Louis	33	30	9	72	10	75	0.521	85	95	13	0.635
12	Dallas	33	31	8	72	10	74	0.514	85	94	14	0.685
13	Los Angeles	30	32	10	72	10	70	0.486	80	90	18	0.885

Stars Tiebreakers With Other Teams:

Anaheim - Lead season series, 7 points to 5 points with 1 game to play - Tied in goal differential -11 to -11
Columbus - Won season series, 7 points to 4 points
Edmonton - Tied season series at 2-2 - Lead in goal differential -14 to -17
Los Angeles - Trail season series, 7 points to 4 with 2 games to play - Lead goal differential -11 to -20
Minnesota - Won season series (Currently 6 points to 1 point with 1 game to play)
Nashville - Tied season series at 2-2 - Lead in goal differential -11 to -14
St. Louis - Lost season series (STL leads 6 points to 0 with 1 game to play)
Vancouver - Lead season series, 4 points to 3 with 1 game to play - Trail goal differential +19 to -14

Since out last update...

The Kings were probably out of this race by Sunday afternoon anyway. But just for good measure, the Chicago Blackhawks beat them, 4-1. For Chicago, the win allowed them to reclaim the fourth seed in the West.

And that's because a very charitable Vancouver Canucks squad lost in Phoenix, 5-1, the previous night. So charitable that they actually scored into their own net during a Phoenix delayed penalty (I'd link to the YouTube video, but I'm at work where YT is blocked).

Minnesota cooled Edmonton's heels with a 3-0 win at home. And from the 'Idiotic Scheduling' department, the Wild had just returned home from a road game at New Jersey on Friday only to go back east to play in New York tonight.

Anaheim beat Phoenix at home, 6-2. Apparently, they have yet to get the memo stating their playoff hopes ended when Sami Pahlsson, Travis Moen, Kent Huskins, and Chris Kunitz were traded.

Looking Ahead

The Stars are on life support. But they do have a three game homestand that starts tonight against the Canucks and continues on Thursday and Saturday with games against the Kings and Panthers, who are also fighting for one of the last playoff spots in the East. IF, by some minor miracle, they're able to sweep the homestand, they could put themselves right back in the race, simply because they have the easiest schedule amongst the five teams fighting for the 8th playoff spot.

As of now, I'd say Dallas needs at least 15 points out of a possible 20 to have a shot. But win three in a row, and that figure becomes 9 points out of a possible 14.

Still improbable. But then again, I thought my Liverpool Reds were out of the Premier League title race as recently as two weeks ago.

But I digress.

Tonight, the Wild take on the Rangers in New York, St. Louis hosts the Kings, Edmonton hosts the Red Wings, and Nashville hosts Anaheim. That last game is going to hurt the Stars no matter what since the Ducks are ahead of them in the standings and the Predators occupy the eighth seed. Still, root for the Preds, I suppose, because the Ducks play in Colorado the following night.

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