Living in the Right Neighborhood

For the fifth time in 11 seasons, the Detroit Red Wings will finish first overall in the NHL and capture the Presidents' Trophy.

That's as opposed to the President's Trophy. Given that the league doesn't have a president, let alone more than one, it might be time to have a look at renaming that particular award, wouldn't you say?

But we digress.

The Wings have indeed been terrific this season, piling up 122 points in 80 games going into their final two matches before the playoffs.

But are they as good as their record suggests?

More than a few hockey people these days are pointing to the Red Wings' home in the very weak Central Division as the primary reason they've been able to pile up so many points in the standings this season and assure themselves of home ice advantage in the Stanley Cup final, should they get that far.

To these onlookers, this is one of the problems with the NHL's unbalanced schedule. A team, like Detroit, playing in a division with Columbus, St. Louis and Chicago, has an unequal access to easy points.

And what do the numbers say?

Well, against the Jackets, Blues and Blackhawks, the Wings compiled a record of 21 wins, one regulation loss, one overtime loss and one shootout defeat.

So in 24 games against these three Central powderpuffs, the Wings didn't pick up at least a point in only one contest.

Overall, of a possible 48 points available, the Wings acquired 44.

Against the other member of that division, Nashville, the Wings were also successful, winning four, losing one in regulation, one in overtime and two in shootouts.

In sum, of a possible 64 points in Central Division play, the Wings picked up 55 points.

No wonder as of yesterday they had an 11 point lead atop the Western Conference over Dallas while Carolina and Ottawa were locked in a death grip for the Eastern Conference championship.

By way of comparison, the Stars had to play Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix and Los Angeles in the Pacific Division. The Coyotes were the the worst team, finishing with 38 wins, more than Columbus, St. Louis or Chicago.

Against its own division, Dallas compiled a record of 17 wins, 11 regulation defeats, three OT losses and a shootout loss. They actually had a losing record against L.A., winning only twice.

So of a possible 64 points against divisional opponents, the Stars registered 38.

Which is 17 fewer points than Detroit picked up against its division.

This doesn't make the Wings a bad team, but perhaps an opportunistic one.

In the playoffs, of course, nobody can hide inside their own division as once was the case. Detroit gets Edmonton in the first round, while Columbus, St. Louis and Chicago are all going home with participating in the Stanley Cup tourney.

So how good are the Wings? If their record is a mirage, we'll start to find out later this week.

Comments

[Arthur]

It's typical to point to the weak sisters as the reason for the Wings' success.

The way I see it, it's the mark of a championship team to get up for the games against the creampuffs of the division - in fact, it's a common statistical touchstone to look to when comparing teams. If your team can't get it together against the bottom-feeders, how do you expect them to win when it really matters?

If Detroit's record is so inflated, why did Vancouver go 0-4 against St. Louis this season? Even one win and they'd still be in the hunt for a playoff spot.

What about the rest of the teams - did they all blow away the powderpuffs? (no - they didn't. Detroit has far and away the best record against Columbus, St. Louis, and Chicago).

Why isn't every decent team in Detroit's division challenging for the President's Trophy?

Don't forget Detroit is no stranger to winning this piece of hardware in the past few years.

Statistics show that the President's Trophy winner has about a 50-50 shot of taking the Stanley Cup. Nobody should be surprised if they are still standing at the end.

[Andrew barrie]

Why debate this further? their upcoming playoff record will speak for itself.

another topic (and still related to records that do or do not speak for themselves) is why Wayne Gretzky is not mentioned as a rookie who scored more than 100 points.

sure, his "professional rookie" season was spent in the WHA between two teams (Edmonton the following year becoming part of the NHL), but he still scored over 100 points.

and his first year in the NHL he had 137.

I don't think its right to discredit what Gretzky accomplished in the WHA. and if you are going to discredit it for perhaps being an "inferior" league, then his first NHL season should be his rookie NHL season, and the 137 should have him on an 8 man list of 100+ point scoring rookies with newly minted Ovenchkin and Crosby.

Speaking of Ovenchkin, if Wayne's WHA stint means his first NHL season was not his first "pro" season, how come playing in the russian league doesn't effect Ovenchkin?

its all a bunch of red tape, but we all know how much the NHL brain trust loves that stuff

PS. I hate the terms "brain trust" and "think tank" and would like to see such trite clichés taken out of sports journalism.

thanks for letting me ramble.

[A-Mar]

Cox isn't saying that Detroit is bad, just that their record is inflated. Detroit is good, which is a huge step above the other Central Division teams. Would they have the same record if they played in, say the Northeast division. Where Ottawa, Buffalo, Montreal and even Toronto can be seen as solid teams. The bottom of the division (Montreal, Toronto, Boston) are much better than their central counterparts (Chicago, St. Louis, Columbus). The question is: Would Detroit win the President's Trophy were they not in the Central Division? No, they would not... the Wings are good, but not THAT good.

[Carla]

Why is it so hard for Detroit fans to face reality and simply admit that the fact that their team faces a bunch of suck-a$$ teams so often throughout the regular season HAS to be helpful to their place in the standings? Yeesh.

[Kent MacDonald]

The wings still had to play 58 games against other teams, and they managed 80 points in those games. That is on pace for 113 points in an 82 game season, only 9 points short of where they ended and still good enough for first overall.

Their division may have been weak, but they still did dominate the league. You can't take that away from them. San Jose is the only team with a shot at taking them down this year, and I REALLY hope they do!

[John]

The Wings have earned a point in 29 of their last 31 games. They have played teams from all of the Western conference, including Dallas. This run includes two West coast trips, one of which required them to play 4 games in 5 nights, which is almost unheard of in the NHL. By the way, one of their regulation losses in that run was without the 5 Swedes who won the Olympic Gold medal. They have also played with multiple injuries throughout the course of the season (losing top 4 defenseman Jiri Fischer).

[Notliberal]

The Wings haven't just beaten up on the Central division. They're 4-0 against Colorado and LA, 3-1 against San Jose, 2-1-1 against Dallas and they beat New Jersey, Philly and the Rangers out east. Let's not pretend like this team isn't very good just because they were able to beat up on the Blues, Jackets and Hawks.

If we want to complain about anything we should complain about the fact that the Wings didn't play the Leafs, Habs or Sens. Wouldn't the NHL be better off with 2 less Wings games against the bottm three of the Central if it meant Wings-Habs, Leafs or Sens?

[Dave]

It is due to the never ending Jealousy of Detroit Hockey that people continue to question Detroits stranglehold on the league. I am from PHX, and I can tell you that 5 presidents trophies in recent decade or so show that despite the patsies this year in the central, the Wings have been at the top of the league for YEARS!! Not just this year, but YEARS!! i repeat, years.. years, hear me yet? get it? got it? good. Get over your jealousy people. Also, anyone have any rebuttle to the first commenter on how other teams did not have such great records against the central patsies? going once, twice...