Western Conference Standings and Games Remaining

Rk	Team	GP	W-L-O-PTS	Top Third	Mid Third	Bot Third
1	Nashville	49	34-12-3-71	8H 4R 12	4H 6R 10	5H 6R 11
2	Anaheim	50	30-12-8-68	6H 7R 13	4H 1R 5	6H 8R 14
3	Detroit	49	30-14-5-65	4H 4R 8	4H 3R 7	10H 8R 18
4	San Jose	48	32-16-0-64	5H 7R 12	4H 6R 10	6H 6R 12
5	Dallas	48	29-18-1-59	6H 7R 13	5H 2R 7	7H 7R 14
6	Calgary	47	26-17-4-56	4H 5R 9	8H 8R 16	5H 5R 10
6	Vancouver	48	27-19-2-56	4H 5R 9	8H 5R 13	6H 6R 12
8	Minnesota	49	25-20-4-54	2H 3R 5	9H 9R 18	5H 5R 10
9	Colorado	47	24-20-3-51	5H 5R 10	8H 9R 17	3H 5R 8
10	Edmonton	48	23-21-4-50	3H 6R 9	8H 7R 15	5H 5R 10
11	Phoenix	48	22-24-2-46	6H 7R 13	7H 6R 13	5H 3R 8
11	St. Louis	48	19-21-8-46	10H 4R 14	6H 6R 12	2H 6R 8
13	Columbus	48	18-25-5-41	9H 6R 15	3H 5R 8	6H 5R 11
13	Chicago	48	17-24-7-41	6H 8R 14	5H 5R 10	5H 5R 10
15	Los Angeles	50	16-28-6-38	4H 7R 11	4H 7R 11	4H 6R 10

This is a pretty traditional western conference standings, but I have added three columns at the end to indicate what's left in the rest of the schedule.

• Top Third indicates games remaining against the top 5 teams in the west or the top 5 teams in the east (NSH, ANA, DET, SJS, DAL, BUF, NJD, ATL, MTL, OTT).
• Mid Third indicates games remaining against the middle 5 teams from either conference (CGY, VAN, MIN, COL, EDM, CAR, TBL, NYR, TOR, PIT).
• Bot Third indicates games against the bottom 5 teams from either conference (PHX, STL, CBJ, CHI, LAK, BOS, NYI, WSH, FLA, PHI).

I don't know if it's that revealing, but note that Detroit and Minnesota in particular seem to have gotten through the toughest parts of their schedule, and there seems to be a lot of top games remaining between Nashville, Anaheim, San Jose, and Dallas. The Predators probably will drop somewhat, as they have already played most of their games against their "automatic two points" division sisters. Teams in the bottom five are pretty destined to stay there, it seems, as they have tougher competition ahead of them than the teams they are trying to catch.

I guess all I'm really saying is that I'll be somewhat surprised if Detroit doesn't end up with the one seed and if Minnesota doesn't end up in the top eight. That means that Colorado and/or Edmonton had better really step it up, because they may need to catch one of VAN/CGY/DAL, all of which have quite a strong headstart.