Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Ducks Simulated Game Day—Buffalo Sabres

Tom L at Sabre Rattling has pointed to a Damien Cox ESPN piece that asks a good question: which team is better, the Buffalo Sabres or the Anaheim Ducks?

Wait, scratch that. That’s not a good question, that’s a dumb question. Who really gives a shit? These teams are playing in two separate leagues on two separate leaderboards. It matters very little how good Anaheim is compared to Buffalo; what matters is how Anaheim stacks vs. the west and how Buffalo stacks vs. the east.

That said, I will offer a little fodder for this burning question. Here, for argument’s sake, is a look at regulation standings, how teams are doing when 60 minutes are up. I only bring it up because it exposes Buffalo for the extra-point slut that it is:


Team

Regulation Record

Anaheim

14-2-10, .731

San Jose

18-7-1, .712

Nashville

14-5-4, .696

Buffalo

11-3-10, .667

Detroit

13-6-4, .652

Dallas

14-8-2, .625

Edmonton

12-8-3, .587

Montreal

10-6-7, .587

Atlanta

11-7-8, .577

Carolina

12-10-4, .538

Calgary

11-10-2, .522

NY Islanders

9-8-7, .521

Toronto

10-9-7, .519

So what’s this really say? Well, for one, it points out that the west has a lot more separation than the east, top teams vs. bottom teams. The east is still more concentrated in the middle.

Buffalo, while still class of the east, does have less regulation wins than 6 western teams (and the same amount Calgary has), so maybe the real question that deserves to be asked isn’t which of two specific teams is better.

Rather, my question is: If Buffalo were in the west, where would it finish? Would it be a first-place club in a much more highly-contested conference?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It would have been nice to play the Sabres at least once this season (darn you crappy schedule!), but I guess all we can do is analyze the stats and make predictions. By the way, love the doodle of both the buffalo and the sabre-toothed cat, but why are there two of them? Has the duck been imbibing too freely?

Earl Sleek said...

That graphic I made a week ago for my next drinky post, but it was close enough to on-topic that I just used it for this one.

Actually, the cat on the right is supposed to be a Nashville Predator, but now that you've dubbed him Sabretooth, I like your explanation better.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the cat on the right is supposed to be a Nashville Predator

Um, whoops.

Earl Sleek said...

Don't worry about it. Like I said, I like your "reading" better than my original intent.

Heh, now I better go back and re-study my fossils.