On March 1st I wrote a blog about the playoff race in the East and how I believed the remaining schedule favorited two wild card teams coming out of the Metro Division. We discussed this at length and at the time I formed my opinion looking at 5 teams (Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and the New York Islanders) fighting for the four spots.
At that time, due to the very difficult schedule ahead for the Bruins, I believed Boston would be the team out and the Penguins would be battling Flyers for seventh and eighth. Due to the Penguins difficulty against the Islanders and Flyers over the last few years, and the fact Pittsburgh would play the Flyers and Islanders six more times, I believed the Penguins were in a very tenuous situation.
At the very least in the article I felt safe to say we knew those five teams would battle it out for the final four playoff spots.
So now it is 20 days later, and all should be much more clear and in focus, right? If by clearer you mean we are now talking about eight teams trying to make the final seven spots.... Maybe not...
Three of the teams I thought were playoff locks at the time where the Florida Panthers, New York Rangers, and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Well over the last 10 games these …Locks… have gone a collective 14-12-4 for a .533 winning percentage, while the five teams I wrote about on March 1st have gone a combined 30-15-5 for a .650 winning percentage...
So with roughly 10 games to go....it is time to do the whole exercise again, except this time we look at 8 teams fighting for seven spots...
Want to know how tight it really is? Then take away the “Games in Hand… at boil it down to winning percentages.
Back on March 1st these 8 teams looked like this:
Winning Percentage Following Games on February 29, 2016 1.NY Rangers .635 1.Tampa .635 1.Florida .635 4. N?Y Islanders .614 5. Detroit .595 6. Boston .593 7.Pittsburgh .580 8.Philadelphia .556
So it was indeed very tight on March 1 with only .079 points separating these 8 teams.
However, fast forward to today...and it looks like this:
Winning Percentage Following Games on March 20, 2016 1. Florida .618 2. Pittsburgh .611 3. NY Rangers .611 4. NY Islanders .607 5. Tampa .604 6. Boston .589 7. Detroit .576 8. Philadelphia .571
Today it is a .047 difference from top to bottom. That is just nuts.
In the last twenty days we went from a close bunching at .079 to a very close bunching of .047.
In my next blog I will do an in depth look at who and where these 8 teams play.. With the standings this close strength of schedule HAS to be a major factor...
We will discuss all this and more on today's HockeyBuzzCast at 1pm