President's Trophy Race: Red Wings, Canucks, Flyers and Penguins Out In Front

The President's Trophy is an accomplishment teams will aspire to. However, in the NHL it is almost a pointless award. Yes, it gives you No. 1 seeding throughout the playoffs, but it does not earn you a bye. In fact, the only thing the President's Trophy earns for a team is higher expectations.

Whoever wins this year's honor will look to not be the latest victim of the President's Trophy curse, recently befalling the 2010 Washington Capitals and the 2009 San Jose Sharks.

The NHL is a league where over half of the teams make it to the playoffs. This means that the top tier teams go in expecting a playoff spot, only wondering what seed they will get. While no one is predicting the Canucks to miss the playoffs, perhaps home ice will help the team finally make it to the Stanley Cup.

Oh another thing, an overtime loss in the regular season nets you half a win. In the playoffs, it's known as a loss. If a team is building points through overtime losses, they may be disappointed when it's playoff time.

One difficulty in comparing teams' records is that, like no other league, the scheduling is incredibly wonky. Within the same division, the Florida Panthers have played 34 games while the Atlanta Thrashers have played 40. To get around this, I have found each team's points per game thus far (I have no idea why NHL.com does not record this. Maybe it's to give false hope to a team that's played too many games).

Note this is as of the final game on Dec. 30.

Atlantic

1. Philadelphia Flyers (51/37) = 1.378
2. Pittsburgh Penguins (53/39) = 1.359
3. New York Rangers (46/38) = 1.211
4. New York Islanders (26/35) = .743
5. New Jersey Devils (20/36) = .556

Northeast

1. Boston Bruins (45/36) = 1.25
2. Montreal Canadiens (42/38) = 1.105
3. Ottawa Senators (36/38) = .947
4. Buffalo Sabres (34/37) = .919
5. Toronto Maple Leafs (30/36) = .833

Southeast

1. Tampa Bay Lightning (49/38) = 1.289
2. Washington Capitals (49/39) = 1.256
3. Atlanta Thrashers (46/40) = 1.18
4. Carolina Hurricanes (38/36) = 1.056
5. Florida Panthers (33/34) = .971

Central

1. Detroit Red Wings (52/37) = 1.405
2. St. Louis Blues (43/36) = 1.194
3. Nashville Predators (40/36) = 1.111
4. Columbus Blue Jackets (41/37) = 1.108
5. Chicago Blackhawks (43/39) = 1.103

Northwest

1. Vancouver Canucks (49/35) = 1.4
2. Colorado Avalanche (45/37) = 1.216
3. Minnesota Wild (39/36) = 1.083
4. Calgary Flames (35/37) = .946
5. Edmonton Oilers (31/36) = .861

Pacific

1. Dallas Stars (48/38) = 1.263
2. Los Angeles Kings (45/37) = 1.216
3. San Jose Sharks (45/38) = 1.184
4. Phoenix Coyotes (41/36) = 1.139
5. Anaheim Ducks (42/40) = 1.05

Doing the Points Per Game method rather than overall points shows the Flyers are the best team in the East, not the Penguins. The Black Hawks are also undeserving of their third place standing in the central, as, if all teams played the same amount of games, they would be last in their division. The Ducks, likewise, are the worst averaging team in the Pacific as they've played four more games than the Coyotes.

If each team kept up its points per game until the end of the season, the playoff seeding would be as such:

Eastern

1. Philadelphia Flyers
2. Tampa Bay Lightning
3. Boston Bruins
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Washington Capitals
6. New York Rangers
7. Atlanta Thrashers
8. Montreal Canadiens

Western

1. Detroit Red Wings (President's Trophy winners)
2. Vancouver Canucks
3. Dallas Stars
4. Los Angeles Kings (more games won over Avalanche)
5. Colorado Avalanche
6. St. Louis Blues
7. San Jose Sharks
8. Phoenix Coyotes

Amazingly, even though the Coyotes appear to be last in their division, their small amount of games played puts them into the top 8 for their division. The Northeast is having a down year, as they sport the worst division winner as well as their No. 2 team barely clinging to the last spot in the conference.

The Southeast has bounced back nicely from last year, sending three teams in as compared to last year's dismal one.



In the West, the Pacific division sports the worst division winner, but it's also sending a whopping four teams to the playoffs. This shows the Pacific is the most balanced division in the league, as of now anyway.

Finally, there's strength of schedule. The President's Trophy winner is not necessarily the best team, it's the team that accrues the most points. As such, having a weaker schedule favors a team to come out on top. Because I can't be arsed to make a full spreadsheet for all 30 teams, let's just look at the remaining schedules for the current top four teams based on points per game.

Detroit Red Wings (currently 1.405 points per game) (45 remaining games) - Predators x 5, Blue Jackets x 4, Blackhawks x 4, Blues x 3, Oilers x 2, Penguins x 2, Bruins x 2, Wild x 2, Sharks x 2, Kings x 2, Canucks x 2, Maple Leafs, Hurricanes, Islanders, Flames, Avalanche, Stars, Sabres, Flyers, Ducks, Coyotes, Capitals, Devils, Panthers, Senators, Rangers = 1.115 average upcoming opponents' points per game

Vancouver Canucks (currently 1.4) (47 remaining games) - Flames x 5, Wild x 4, Predators x 4, Stars x 4, Coyotes x 3, Avalanche x 3, Sharks x 3, Oilers x 3, Red Wings x 2, Blue Jackets x 2, Kings x 2, Ducks x 2, Blues x 2, Bruins, Canadiens, Thrashers, Islanders, Rangers, Capitals, Blackhawks, Senators = 1.116 average upcoming opponents' points per game

Philadelphia Flyers (currently 1.378) (45 remaining games) - Rangers x 4, Thrashers x 4, Devils x 4, Sabres x 3, Islanders x 3, Bruins x 2, Lightning x 2, Stars x 2, Hurricanes x 2, Panthers x 2, Senators x 2, Maple Leafs x 2, Capitals x 2, Penguins x 2, Ducks, Red Wings, Oilers, Senators, Blackhawks, Canadiens, Predators, Kings, Coyotes = 1.048 average upcoming opponents' points per game

Pittsburgh Penguins (currently 1.359) (43 remaining games) - Devils x 4, Islanders x 4, Capitals x 3, Rangers x 3, Canadiens x 3, Bruins x 3, Red Wings x 2, Maple Leafs x 2, Flyers x 2, Panthers x 2, Lightning x 2, Hurricanes x 2, Sabres x 2, Blue Jackets, Kings, Avalanche, Blackhawks, Sharks, Oilers, Senators, Thrashers, Wild = 1.053 average upcoming opponents' points per game

Even if the Red Wings do not win the President's trophy, they are the current Stanley Cup favorites. They are currently averaging the most points in the league despite being in the better conference and in an above-average division.

The Canucks, despite a weaker division, actually have a very slightly harder record going forward, suggesting more of the easy competition is in the past (Looking at you, Edmonton). The 'Nucks also have the best goal differential per game. Pittsburgh and Philly both will look to take advantage of a weaker Eastern conference. The winner between them will secure home ice advantage through the playoffs, the loser will get the No. 4 seed.

Prediction: The Flyers and Red Wings will take the No. 1 seeds in their conference, with the Red Wings able to edge out the Flyers for the Presidents Trophy despite a harder schedule.

It should be noted that very much can change, and the favorites for both the Stanley Cup and President's Trophy are subject to change just about every week. That's just the magic of sports.