Projecting the standings

One more quick post based on the standings since Dec. 31 — here's a look at what the final standings would be if teams play the same over the final 20~ games as they have so far in 2008 (keeping in mind that that's a pretty big if):

		GR	Pts	New Pts	Total
1	Pittsburgh	21	75	30.1	105.1
2	New Jersey	21	75	27.4	102.4
3	Montreal	20	75	26.1	101.1
4	Ottawa	21	76	20.1	96.1
5	Boston	22	68	27.2	95.2
6	Buffalo	21	68	24.5	92.5
7	Washington	21	63	26.7	89.7
8	NY Rangers	20	68	20.9	88.9
9	NY Islanders	20	67	20.8	87.8
10	Philadelphia	21	66	21.0	87.0
11	Carolina	18	67	18.8	85.8
12	Atlanta	20	62	20.9	82.9
13	Tampa Bay	21	57	22.9	79.9
14	Florida	19	61	17.4	78.4
15	Toronto	20	59	18.3	77.3
		GR	Pts	New Pts	Total
1	Detroit	20	89	25.5	114.5
2	Dallas	18	79	21.8	100.8
3	Anaheim	18	75	25.0	100.0
4	Minnesota	21	73	25.8	98.8
5	Nashville	19	72	25.8	97.8
6	Calgary	21	70	25.0	95.0
7	San Jose	21	72	22.0	94.0
8	Vancouver	21	70	22.0	92.0
9	Phoenix	21	66	25.4	91.4
10	St. Louis	22	65	22.0	87.0
11	Colorado	21	66	20.0	86.0
12	Columbus	19	65	18.2	83.2
13	Chicago	22	62	20.1	82.1
14	Edmonton	21	59	23.0	82.0
15	Los Angeles	19	55	20.7	75.7

What's interesting is that the Capitals would actually climb above the eighth-place team in the Eastern Conference, which would be a blessing for the league given the Southeast winner wouldn't bump a "legitimate" playoff team. You can see San Jose sliding in the West, while Phoenix remains right in the hunt.

Colorado and Philadelphia have been falling fast.

I suppose we'll see how accurate this ends up being on April 6.