Projecting out the standings Pt One

New York Islander Fan Central | 1/28/2008 10:15:00 PM | |
My favorite feature of the NHL season where I look at the trends of the Islanders season look at the their upcoming schedule and project out the Islanders point total and if they can acquire enough points to make what I consider the playoff mendoza line which starts at ninety two points but could go as high as ninety six points.

As a rule for me part of that mendoza line has to be ten games over five hundred.

Every week or so I will revisit this and we can laugh at how wrong I was about the game or how close I came to getting it correct.

For the first edition of this feature we start with the current standings and the games played. Islanders go into the break with thirty two games remaining and fifty four points.

Note-Regardless of what happens with the Islanders or any team in terms of trades/injuries all predictions made today are final for the rest of the season.

Eastern Conference
Games played/points
1 Ottawa Senators* 50 66
2 Philadelphia Flyers* 48 59
3 Carolina Hurricanes* 52 52
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4 Montréal Canadiens 49 60
5 New Jersey Devils 49 59
6 Pittsburgh Penguins 49 58
7 Boston Bruins 49 55
8 New York Islanders 50 54
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9 Rangers 51 54
10 Washington Capitals 50 51
11 Atlanta Thrashers 52 50
12 Florida Panthers 51 49
13 Buffalo Sabres 48 48
14 Toronto Maple Leafs 51 48
15 Tampa Bay Lightning 50 45

Islanders remaining games:
Record 24-20-6 54 points
Jan 29, Senators-Loss 54 points 24-21-6
Jan 31, Kings-Win 56 points 25-21-6
Feb 2, at Canadians-Loss 56 points 25-22-6
Feb 5, Ducks-Loss 56 points 25-23-6
Feb 7, at Penguins otl 57 points 25-23-7
Feb 9, at Wild W 59 points 26-23-7
Feb 12 Flyers L 59 points 26-24-7
Feb 14, at Maple Leafs L 59 points 26-25-7
Feb 16, Thrashers W 61 points 27-25-7
Feb 18, Sharks W 63 points 28-25-7
Feb 20, at Capitals ot L 64 points 28-25-8
Feb 21, Lightning W 66 points 29-25-8
Feb 23, at Devils L 66 points 29-26-8
Feb 26, Penguins W 68 points 30-26-8
Feb 28, at Thrashers W 70 points 31-26-8
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Mar 1 Flyers ot-L 71 points 31-26-9
Mar 2, Panthers W 73 points 32-26-9
Mar 4, at Rangers W 75 points 33-26-9
Mar 6, Rangers ot-L 76 points 33-26-10
Mar 8, at Flyers L 76 points 33-27-10
Mar 11 at Lightning W 78 points 34-27-10
Mar 12, at Panthers otl 79 points 34-27-11
Mar 15, at Canadiens L 79 points 34-28-11
Mar 18, Leafs W 81 points 35-28-11
Mar 21, at Devils L 81 points 35-29-11
Mar 23, at Flyers W 83 points 36-29-11
Mar 24, Penguins W 85 points 37-29-11
Mar 27, at Penguins otl 86 points 37-29-12
Mar 29, 2 Flyers W 87 points 38-29-12
Apr 1, Devils W 89 points 39-29-12
Apr 3, Rangers otl 90 points 39-29-13
Apr 4, at Rangers W 92 points 40-29-13

There we are folks, ninety three points, eleven games over five hundred and what is a good shot at one of the last playoff seeds. Could be wrong by a lot either way or correct but this is how I see things projecting out given the trends and not too many critical injuries or major trades for a club going for it now or cashing in if they go into a major tailspin.