This was written before Saturday's game against Columbus.
No hiding from ugly numbers and a lot of signs the competitive part of the 08-09 season in terms of realistic playoff contention is almost over.
Eastern Conference
4. Montreal 28 37
5. Philadelphia 28 36
6. Pittsburgh 29 36
7. New Jersey 26 34
8. Buffalo 29 31
9. Florida 29 31
10. Carolina 29 30
11. Toronto 29 28
12. Ottawa 27 25
13. Atlanta 28 22
14. NY Islanders 29 22
15. Tampa Bay 29 22
You fall nine points out of the eighth seed, twelve out of seventh and are seven games under five hundred it's fair to write it's almost over unless the Islanders have a huge winning streak in them.
The overall numbers suggest that is not likely with virtually nothing to look at as a starting point for such a turnaround aside from pp goals where the club is at twelve overall with twenty five goals with the man advantage which is a big improvement from previous seasons but not something to count on.
Here are the very ugly numbers:
30th in team plus/minus at -29. (29th team is only minus seventeen)
25th in goals scored 73 (dropped from 20th recently) entering play on Saturday.
26th in goals per game. (which is up from last season)
27th in times shorthanded at 146.
30th in goals allowed at 106.
27th in save percentage at 88.6
25th in saves at 825.
1st in blocked shots with 507/next team has 476.
25th in ppg allowed with 29 goals given up with man advantage.
20th in pk percentage at 80.1
25th in faceoff percentage at 48.1 (including Sillinger's recent dominance)
23-28th tied in overtime losses with two. (no survival skills to get games to ot)
17th in team hits with 572 recorded hits.
21st in missed shot at 304.
23rd in giveaways at 280.
3rd in takeaways at 257.
Folks talked about last year being a poor season where the club lost a league high 402 man games to injury with the club in sixth in early January.
That seems to be one area last year's club may even be worse in also if the trends continue.