New Jersey, if you recall, was in last place in the Eastern Conference for most of the first half of the season. Now they are 4 spots and 8 points out of a playoff berth. They only have 17 games left to overcome that deficit. If they continue to earn points at their current absurd pace of 88.0%, and all other teams in the league continue to earn points according to their season-long P% here's how the Eastern Conference would finish:
GR is Games Remaining, PPT is Projected Point Total, and PFP is Projected Finishing Place
Unfortunately, it looks like the Devils will fall 2 places and ~2.5 points short of a playoff berth if they maintain their blistering P% and every other team earns points at the same rate they have all year. The bubble teams' remaining strength of schedule should then factor into how strongly each team finishes.
RSOS is Remaining Strength of Schedule, bubble teams are bolded. Credit to http://www.playoffstatus.com for calculating the remaining strength of schedule.
The Devils have the easiest remaining schedule out of the East bubble teams. That should certainly help them in securing a playoff spot. So are the chances of the New Jersey Devils making the playoffs highly unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No.
How does the Devils' strength of schedule compare to that of the rest of the bubble teams? Do you think that'll make much of a difference, or in light of huge wins like the Rangers' over the Flyers do you think ultimately the strength of Carolina's, Toronto's, Atlanta's schedules won't really factor into the Devils' chances?
ReplyDeleteGood call, the remaining strength of schedule does play a role in how each team finishes. I updated the post accordingly, check it out.
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious to see a projection for the Western Conference. The West is a mess right now - what do the stats say? Using a P% from the last 25 games or so.
ReplyDeleteI'll do one for the Western Conference sometime soon, stay tuned!
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