Historical Reflection: What if there were a BoC back in the day?

You know, pretty much since the outset of this blog, there has been a pretty steady stream of taunts directed towards the L.A. Kings, and why not? The 2-year pattern we’ve observed involves the Kings missing the playoffs, the Sharks choking on a round 2 series lead, and the (Mighty) Ducks either losing in the conference finals or winning it all.

But amazingly enough, things were not always so—there was a time not that long ago where things were drastically different. To see what I’m talking about, take a look below at the Western Conference standings back on December 31st, 2005 (back when teams were ranked by standings points, then wins):

Rk	Team	GP	W – L – O	Pts	GF – GA
1	Detroit	38	26 – 9 – 3	55	144 – 100
2	Los Angeles	41	25 – 14 – 2	52	141 – 121
3	Calgary	39	23 – 12 – 4	50	103 – 97
4	Nashville	36	24 – 9 – 3	51	114 – 102
5	Dallas	37	24 – 12 – 1	49	121 – 99
6	Edmonton	40	22 – 14 – 4	48	130 – 125
7	Vancouver	38	21 – 12 – 5	47	128 – 117
8	Colorado	40	20 – 17 – 3	43	148 – 134
9	Phoenix	40	20 – 18 – 2	42	116 – 116
10	Minnesota	39	18 – 17 – 4	40	110 – 95
11	Anaheim	38	17 – 15 – 6	40	107 – 103
12	San Jose	37	16 – 16 – 5	37	113 – 114
13	Chicago	37	13 – 20 – 4	30	99 – 130
14	Columbus	39	12 – 26 – 1	25	79 – 138
15	St. Louis	36	9 – 22 – 5	23	95 – 140

That’s right. The Kings, second in the western conference, sticking out their tongues at the lowly Ducks and Sharks, who at that point were fighting to stay out of the Pacific basement. Can you imagine the fun-loving posts that Kings bloggers would be writing back then? (And really, this was not that long ago—the Kings were atop the BoC standings through March 19, 2006, less than two months before this blog's first post.)

It’s pretty astounding how much the tables have turned since then. In regular season games in 2006 and 2007, the Kings have gone a combined 44-62-17 (.427), getting outscored 325 – 425. Meanwhile, the Sharks have gone 79-37-11 (.665), outscoring opponents 408 – 318, and the Ducks have gone 74-32-20 (.667), outscoring opponents 398 – 317. Plus the Sharks have won 2 playoff series and the Ducks have won 6.

So I don’t know—part of me wants to apologize to the Kings bloggers—back then, there wasn’t a BoC blog forum for them to properly taunt us Sharks/Ducks fans. Then again, if they had, how much shit would they be eating right about now?

But I guess the real lesson here is one of caution: in this state of California especially, tables can turn awfully fast. Literally, in the span of a few months, bottom-feeders can become cup contenders, and division leaders can see their golden era get quickly flushed down the toilet.
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