AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2009 > January > 31
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Who’s Up - Who’s Down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Thrashers have 50 games behind them so far this season with game number 51 in Carolina tonight. As we all know, their record of 17-28-5 is worth 39 points in the season…which is a .390 Points Winning percentage, (PW%). Continuing at that pace would land the Thrashers at about 64 points.
To place this into some sort of perspective, last season Tampa Bay and Los Angeles finished with the lowest PW%, .433. Atlanta was then next on that list at .463. Currently, the Bolts are 17-23-10 for 44 points for a .440 PW% and the Kings are 20-20-7 for 47 points…a .500 PW%. Doing the math, that means Tampa Bay is currently playing at a level which is .007 PW% better than last year, (.440-.433=+.007) and the Kings are a +.067 in regards to last season’s PW%, (.500-.433=+.067).
Side note here for Bruce Levenson…this would indicate the Kings are showing movement in the right direction.
Continuing, our Atlanta Thrashers go into tonight’s game against the Hurricanes at a -.073 PW%, (.390-.463=-.073).
So…who’s showing the most improvement this season over last? Well, not surprisingly, it’s the Boston Bruins at a +.203…followed by San Jose at a +.160 and Chicago, a +.101.
How about the opposite side of the page…the Islanders are .138 PW% off last season’s mark, (which is quite the accomplishment seeing that it was only .482 PW%last year). Ottawa has fallen from a playoff-qualifying .573 PW% last season to .436 now, (-.137), but they were falling like a stone heading into the playoffs last spring as well. Third worst on the list is Anaheim at a -.102.
The Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings have improved +.018 from last season. But given that they had a .701 PW% then, it’s not as thought they had a lot of room above them to begin with, so the +.018 is even more impressive to me given that fact.
Here is the complete list from top to bottom:
+.203 - Boston
+.160 - San Jose
+.101 - Chicago
+.094 - Calgary
+.080 - Washington
+.067 - L.A. Kings
+.066 - New Jersey
+.056 - Philadelphia
+.053 - Columbus
+.045 - Florida
+.029 - N.Y. Rangers
+.024 - Phoenix
+.018 - Detroit
+.015 - Edmonton
+.012 - Buffalo
+.007 - Tampa Bay
-.009 - Montreal
-.017 - Vancouver
-.031 - Carolina
-.035 - St. Louis
-.048 - Dallas
-.057 - Toronto
-.067 - Minnesota
-.073 - Atlanta
-.087 - Nashville
-.092 - Pittsburgh
-.099 - Colorado
-.102 - Anaheim
-.137 - Ottawa
-.138 - N.Y. Islanders
A few other thoughts regarding this list:
Eight of the sixteen teams that have improved on last season’s record did not qualify for post-season last spring, including four of the top ten.
The Kings are showing the sixth-best improvement, but are doing so with the league’s lowest payroll.
The Blackhawks are third on that list after having made a coaching change early on in the season.
Three of last year’s five lottery pick teams have shown a regression in their PW% from last year, including Atlanta.
San Jose, (+.160) and Florida, (+.045), are doing so with men behind the bench that are in their first year as an NHL head coach. Washington, (+.080), has a head coach in his first full season in that role.
The Duck, (-.102), have the third-highest cap hit.
Phoenix, (+.024), has the fourth lowest cap hit.
