Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation.
The Rangers blog 5-Hole.com has been keeping up with the NHL Alternate Standings, in which the playoff seeds are determined by different point values for regulation and overtime victories.
For example, if wins in regulation or overtime were worth two points and losses in those situations were worth nothing -- while both teams earn a single point for a shootout appearance (hence, a tie) -- the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators would be the seventh and eighth seeds in the West right now and Anaheim would be a No. 4 seed. See those standings here.
The blog also offers a format that's been suggested and debated on Puck Daddy for many moons: The three-point system in which it's 3 points for a regulation win (W), 2 points for an OT/SO win (W+), 1 point for an OT/SO loss (L+), 0 points for a regulation loss (L).
Here's the 3-point/2-point/1-point format applied to today's standings:
A few interesting changes to the seedings. The Capitals would be behind the Flyers and Boston. The Ducks would be the No. 8 seed, as would the Sabres.
But overall, looking at these standings … not a major deviation from what we have now, no? Which is sort of a bummer.
If you removed the charity point, however, and made it 3/2/1 with nothing for the losers, it looks like this:
Big improvement for Anaheim, huge improvement for the Canadiens, the Leafs right in the hunt for the No. 8 seed, and the Western Conference bubble busted. Interesting …
Coming up, the playoff pictures for the East and West, as we shift the focus to playoff seeding. The full NHL standings and schedules can be found on Y! Sports.
All playoff percentages are from Sports Club Stats; the Tragic Number is from NHL Standings and Magic Numbers.
The former is an industry standard; the latter is a site we discovered this week, and are hopeful that the figures are as accurate as those from NHL Playoff Race. Also: For the Percentage Chance of Making the Playoffs, we've included the figures from Hockey-Reference.com (HR), which is crunching its own numbers. It's listed with the percentage from Sports Club Stats (SCS).
Head here for an explanation of the Tragic Numbers.
Here's the playoff picture for the Eastern Conference:
| Team (Games) | Place/Record/Pts. | Tragic # | % Chance of Playoffs | % Chance of 7th | % Chance of 8th |
| Montreal Canadiens(79) | 6th/42-30-7/91 | -- | 99.1 (SCS)98.5 (HR) | 23 | 9 |
| Buffalo Sabres(79) | 7th/40-29-10/90 | -- | 94.9 (SCS)93.1 (HR) | 44 | 27 |
| New York Rangers(79) | 8th/42-32-5/89 | -- | 85.0 (SCS)90.5 (HR) | 29 | 26 |
| Carolina Hurricanes(79) | 9th/38-30-11/87 | 5 | 20.8 (SCS)17.5 (HR) | 3 | 17 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs(79) | 10th/37-32-10/84 | 2 | 0.3 (SCS)0.4 (HR) | 0 | 0 |
Two points from the Rangers eliminates the Leafs. Your VERSUS game of the night, vs. the Boston Bruins. Yes, that's right: Leafs Nation, cheering on the B's Monday night.
(Ed. Note: If the Sabres lose out and the Leafs win out, the Leafs can still make the cut if the Rangers win Monday night.)
Here's the Western Conference:
| Team (Games) | Place/Record/Pts. | Tragic # | % Chance of Playoffs | % Chance of 7th | % Chance of 8th |
| Los Angeles Kings (78) | 4th/45-27-6/96 | -- | 99.7 (SCS)99.9 (HR) | 6 | 3 |
| Phoenix Coyotes (79) | 5th/42-25-12/96 | -- | 99.5 (SCS)99.3 (HR) | 16 | 6 |
| Nashville Predators(79) | 6th/42-26-11/95 | -- | 98.6 (SCS)98.5 (HR) | 15 | 7 |
| Anaheim Ducks(79) | 7th/44-30-5/93 | -- | 86.3 (SCS)88.7 (HR) | 29 | 36 |
| Chicago Blackhawks(78) | 8th/42-28-8/92 | -- | 86.6 (SCS)88.0 (HR) | 27 | 27 |
| Calgary Flames(80) | 9th/40-29-11/91 | 3 | 4.7 (SCS)8.1 (HR) | 0 | 4 |
| Dallas Stars (78) | 10th/39-28-11/89 | 6 | 24.6 (SCS)17.5 (HR) | 6 | 17 |
The Stars and Flames keep hanging around, but the numbers game just doesn't work for Calgary. Again, the Stars have a very manageable schedule down the stretch. The Blackhawks aren't out of the weeds yet.
If the playoffs started today, they'd look like this. Red Wings and Ducks? Oh my.