from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,
If Wednesday’s Ottawa Senators-Los Angeles Kings tilt was indeed the final game of the 2019-20 regular season, here is how the playoff brackets would look (according to points percentage, the only fair way considering the differences in games played).
Eastern Conference
Bruins (.714) vs. Islanders (.588)
Lightning (.657) vs. Maple Leafs (.576)Capitals (.652) vs. Hurricanes (.596)
Flyers (.645) vs. Penguins (.623)Just outside: Blue Jackets (.579), Panthers (.565), Rangers (.564)
Western Conference
Blues (.662) vs. Flames (.564)
Avalanche (.657) vs. Stars (.594)Golden Knights (.606) vs. Predators (.595)
Oilers (.585) vs. Canucks (.565)Just outside: Jets (.563), Wild (.558), Coyotes (.529)
more topics, one of them being...
Flip the standings page upside down, and you discover another issue that’ll be needed to sort through.
While the aggressively tanking Red Wings managed to lock up 31st place — and the highest draft lottery odds (an 18.5 per cent chance at first overall) — prior to the pause, a scant two standings points separated the 30th-place Senators, 29th-place Sharks and 28th-place Sharks.
Only a 10-point gap divided the Sens from the 23rd-place Blackhawks, who would now have just a five per cent shot at winning the lottery. Every ball in the hopper matters....
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