Comparing Hockey Standings

I'm slightly obsessed with the math of the NHL.

Here are the current standings based on points percentage:

While fair, it still compares an uneven number of games and uses percentages/projection to balance it.

Here's what the standings look like for the top 11 teams, through 45 games played:

Anaheim 69
St. Louis 69
Chicago 67
Pittsburgh 65
San Jose 62
Colorado 61
Boston 60
LA 59
Tampa Bay 58
Montreal 55
Vancouver 55

So there you go. It's basically the same thing. These numbers give you a true way of saying, the Penguins are 4 points behind the Blues. But they also ignore the actual results since the cutoff date. For example, Anaheim went 3-0 since the 45 game mark, giving them the best points percentage in the league. At any rate, this only confirms the validity of the points percentage standings and the ridiculousness of the current standings that have shown the Blackhawks over the Blues all year.