Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Ducks Gameday—Bizarro Pacific

Anaheim Ducks (29-9-7, 1st in west) at Dallas Stars (26-17-1, 5th in west)

Not much time to remark on these tables, but check out the Pacific standings through the two-day Christmas break and since. I’d have figured that the Ducks’ Pacific lead would have been much more deteriorated thanks to their lackluster play lately, but really the Sharks have closed their gap by only one point and the Stars only two.

Before Christmas:

Team

W-L-O-PtsWin Pct.GF – GAPP%PK%

Anaheim

27-5-6-60

.789

3.47 – 2.21

22.7%

86.9%

San Jose

25-11-0-50

.694

2.97 – 2.14

22.5%

86.0%

Dallas

23-13-0-46

.639

2.58 – 2.22

15.8%

86.2%

Los Angeles

12-20-5-29

.392

2.68 – 3.51

17.8%

77.7%

Phoenix

13-20-1-27

.397

2.41 – 3.65

11.4%

77.7%


Since Christmas:

Team

W-L-O-PtsWin Pct.GF – GAPP%PK%

Phoenix

7-0-1-15

.938

4.13 – 1.88

33.3%

86.5%

Los Angeles

4-2-1-9

.643

3.43 – 3.29

21.1%

75.0%

Dallas

3-4-1-7

.438

2.75 – 3.25

30.0%

73.0%

San Jose

3-4-0-6

.429

3.57 – 3.71

37.5%

76.2%

Anaheim

2-4-1-5

.357

3.00 – 3.43

19.4%

78.3%


Prediction: Ducks 4, Stars 3. Goals by Penner, Pahlsson, Getzlaf, and Scotty.

[EDIT: I didn't notice this until today, but JavaGeek threw together some numbers on a new win predictor I had been mulling about instead of goal differential--the ability to hold a lead or come back from a deficit. Again, not much time to digest the numbers today, but it does one thing right: Ottawa (notorious for winning blowouts and losing close games) ranks 21st in the league. Check it out and give it a basic sniff test.]

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