Ducks Gameday—Bizarro Pacific

Anaheim Ducks (29-9-7, 1st in west) at Dallas Stars (26-17-1, 5th in west)

Not much time to remark on these tables, but check out the Pacific standings through the two-day Christmas break and since. I’d have figured that the Ducks’ Pacific lead would have been much more deteriorated thanks to their lackluster play lately, but really the Sharks have closed their gap by only one point and the Stars only two.

Before Christmas:

Team	W-L-O-Pts	Win Pct.	GF – GA	PP%	PK%
Anaheim	27-5-6-60	.789	3.47 – 2.21	22.7%	86.9%
San Jose	25-11-0-50	.694	2.97 – 2.14	22.5%	86.0%
Dallas	23-13-0-46	.639	2.58 – 2.22	15.8%	86.2%
Los Angeles	12-20-5-29	.392	2.68 – 3.51	17.8%	77.7%
Phoenix	13-20-1-27	.397	2.41 – 3.65	11.4%	77.7%

Since Christmas:

Team	W-L-O-Pts	Win Pct.	GF – GA	PP%	PK%
Phoenix	7-0-1-15	.938	4.13 – 1.88	33.3%	86.5%
Los Angeles	4-2-1-9	.643	3.43 – 3.29	21.1%	75.0%
Dallas	3-4-1-7	.438	2.75 – 3.25	30.0%	73.0%
San Jose	3-4-0-6	.429	3.57 – 3.71	37.5%	76.2%
Anaheim	2-4-1-5	.357	3.00 – 3.43	19.4%	78.3%

Prediction: Ducks 4, Stars 3. Goals by Penner, Pahlsson, Getzlaf, and Scotty.

[EDIT: I didn't notice this until today, but JavaGeek threw together some numbers on a new win predictor I had been mulling about instead of goal differential--the ability to hold a lead or come back from a deficit. Again, not much time to digest the numbers today, but it does one thing right: Ottawa (notorious for winning blowouts and losing close games) ranks 21st in the league. Check it out and give it a basic sniff test.]