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The Oil Rises. An NHL 1/3rd tighter, plus the Virtual Final Standings.

March 25, 2008, 2:56 AM ET [ Comments]
Eklund
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The Oilers continue on their magical roll in the west on a weird night when Flames fans were rooting for the Oilers, and Oilers fans were rooting for the Flames....PLUS, the new virtual final standings sees the Oilers just two points out, or one upset win away from being a playoff team.

It is incredibly impressive how these young Oilers without some of their star players including 2 of their top guys in Souray and Horcoff continue to not just beat the teams above them, but they are jumping out to quick BIG leads like they did tonight.

It is really hard to bet against the Oilers right now. The city is alive again, and the youngsters are gaining great experience as they go...

Let's look back to the last time the Oilers had this sort of magic going: The 2005-2006 season. The season that saw the Oilers battle their way into the playoffs and come one game away from winning a Stanley Cup.

It is very interesting to look at the similarities between these two squads:

After 77 games that Oilers team was in 8th place with a record of:
39-26-13 for 91 points.GF 249. GA 244.
They were 1 point behind Anaheim, 1 point AHEAD of Colorado, 2 points AHEAD of San Jose, 4 points AHEAD of Vancouver.

After 77 games this Oilers team is in 9th place with a record of:
39-33-5 for 83 points . GF 224 GA 238
They are 3 points behind Colorado

BTW, looking at the records in that first post lockout season a this point in the season there was a much bigger disparity between top and bottom.

In fact as strong as Detroit has been this season getting 106 points, the top five at this point in 05-06 were...

Detroit 114
Carolina 108
Ottawa 108
Dallas 105
Buffalo 100

As opposed to the top 5 this year around the 77 game point...

Detroit 106
San Jose 99
Montreal 96
Anaheim 94
Pittsburgh 93
NJ 91


At this point in 05-06 the bottom five teams were...

Pittsburgh 53
St. Louis 54
Chicago 60
Washington 62
Columbus 68

Where right now the bottom five are..

Los Angeles 66
Tampa 66
Atlanta 70
St. Louis 72
NY Islanders 75

Infact, if the the teams from this year had the same records only three teams from the West and six from the East would be in the playoffs based on points.

So you think the league is tighter now then it was just two years ago?

How a bout 33% TIGHTER!

The difference at around the 77 game mark between the top team (Detroit 114) and the bottom team (Pittsburgh 53) was 61 points in 05-06 at the 77 game mark.

This year Detroit at 106 and LA/Tampa at 66 is only 40 points in 07-08.

That is a tightening league.

(It also bears noting that the Penguins are a remarkable 40 points better than they were just two years ago. An accomplishment even more impressive when you consider how close all the teams are and how there just aren't any easy wins now.)

interesting stuff


The Hockey Buzz Virtual Final Standings...


1. Montreal 106
2. Pittsburgh 104
3. Carolina 98
4. NY Rangers 103
5. New Jersey 100
6. Ottawa 96
7. Philadelphia 94
8. Florida 91


9. Washington 88
10. Boston 88
11. Buffalo 87
12. Toronto 86
13. NY Islanders 75
14. Atlanta 74
15. Tampa 69



1. Detroit 118
2. San Jose 113
3. Minnesota 98
4. Anaheim 102
5. Calgary 96
6. Dallas 94
7. Colorado 93
8. Vancouver 91


9. Edmonton 89
10. Nashville 89
11. Chicago 87
12. Phoenix 81
13. Columbus 80
14. St. Louis 72
15. Los Angeles 69
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