Happy Monday morning hockey world. Last night I was amazed at how much talk was surrounding the Metro division and this morning the Atlantic...The reason for the sudden amount of chatter regarding player movement in the East?
"Almost everybody is playing poorly," a source joked, "The East and West have never before been so wide open...teams are starting to see how tight this all is and feeling how if they can add one or two pieces they could write a ticket to the Cup Final."
How bad are teams playing in the East?
Over the last ten games only 4 of the 16 teams in the East are playing over .500.
Only Boston, Philly, Washington and Pittsburgh are over .500.
When you take the loser point out of it and go by "actual win/loss records" the East, the last ten look like this:
#1. Flyers 8-2 #2. Boston 7-3 #3. Washington 6-4 #3. Pittsburgh 6-4 --------------------- #5. Florida 5-5 #5. Detroit 5-5 #7. Columbus 4-6 #7. Tampa 4-6 #7. NY Rangers 4-6 #7 NY Islanders 4-6 #7. Ottawa 4-6 #12. NJ Devils 3-7 #12. Montreal 3-7 #12. Toronto 3-7 #12. Carolina 3-7 #16. Buffalo 2-8
So the East over the last 10 games is 71-89
Compare that to the West:
1. Colorado 9-1 2. Winnipeg 7-3 2. Nashville 7-3 2. Calgary 7-3 2. Dallas 7-3 6. Vegas 6-4 6. San Jose 6-4 6. Minnesota 6-4 6. Anaheim 6-4 ------------- 10. St Louis 5-5 10. Chicago 5-5 12. Edmonton 4-6 12. LA Kings 4-6 14. Vancouver 3-7 14. Arizona 3-7
So the West over the last ten is 85-65...
Think about this...
Over their last ten games the East is 18 games under .500 and the West is 20 games over!
Looked at another way...There are only 4 teams over .500 in the East and only 4 teams UNDER .500 in the West...
What does all of this mean regarding the deadline?
Right now it means both Conferences are looking to buy, but for completely opposite reasons. In the East teams see the opportunity to separate from the pack and in the West teams see themselves as playing well and this as being possibly "Their year."
And all this is about to change as the schedule now turns to predominantly "in Division and in Conference" games...so something has to give.
As for rumors...I am currently looking closely at Montreal and Columbus. The Jackets are very interested in Galchenyuk....(e4)
More to come...
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— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) August 2, 2017