Ducks Simulated Game Day—Buffalo Sabres

Tom L at Sabre Rattling has pointed to a Damien Cox ESPN piece that asks a good question: which team is better, the Buffalo Sabres or the Anaheim Ducks?

Wait, scratch that. That’s not a good question, that’s a dumb question. Who really gives a shit? These teams are playing in two separate leagues on two separate leaderboards. It matters very little how good Anaheim is compared to Buffalo; what matters is how Anaheim stacks vs. the west and how Buffalo stacks vs. the east.

That said, I will offer a little fodder for this burning question. Here, for argument’s sake, is a look at regulation standings, how teams are doing when 60 minutes are up. I only bring it up because it exposes Buffalo for the extra-point slut that it is:

Team	Regulation Record
Anaheim	14-2-10, .731
San Jose	18-7-1, .712
Nashville	14-5-4, .696
Buffalo	11-3-10, .667
Detroit	13-6-4, .652
Dallas	14-8-2, .625
Edmonton	12-8-3, .587
Montreal	10-6-7, .587
Atlanta	11-7-8, .577
Carolina	12-10-4, .538
Calgary	11-10-2, .522
NY Islanders	9-8-7, .521
Toronto	10-9-7, .519

So what’s this really say? Well, for one, it points out that the west has a lot more separation than the east, top teams vs. bottom teams. The east is still more concentrated in the middle.

Buffalo, while still class of the east, does have less regulation wins than 6 western teams (and the same amount Calgary has), so maybe the real question that deserves to be asked isn’t which of two specific teams is better.

Rather, my question is: If Buffalo were in the west, where would it finish? Would it be a first-place club in a much more highly-contested conference?