There is a misconception on HF that keeps popping up this season about the Atlantic division. While it is a weak division overall, the misconception is that the top 3 teams (and Toronto more specifically) are where they are points wise because they get to “beat on” the five other Atlantic teams, all of which are struggling to one degree or another.

This has been repeated numerous times on these boards and is used to disregard the top 3 Atlantic teams because they supposedly “benefit from beating easy competition all the time”. I didn’t know who benefited the most by getting to “beat on” those teams, I just knew it wasn’t Toronto, so I went over the numbers and this is what they revealed about who has benefited the most from the Atlantic bottom 5.

These are each teams games/results/pts and % these pts are of their total on the season.

31. Nashville. 2-0 (4pts of a possible 4pts) those 4pts account for 5.63% of Tampas 71Pts.
30. Vegas. 3-2-1 (7/12pts) 9.46% of 74Pts.
29. Winnipeg. 3-2-1 (7/12pts) 9.59% of 73Pts.
28. Colorado. 3-3-1 (7/14pts) 11.29% of 62Pts.
27. Anaheim. 3-3-1 (7/14pts) 62pts - 11.29%.
26. Calgary. 3-3-1 (7/14pts) 11.29% of 62Pts.
25. Edmonton. 3-4 (6/17pts) 12.00% of 50Pts.
24. Arizona. 2-4 (4/12pts) 12.12% of 33Pts.
23. Ottawa. 2-5-2 (6/18pts) 13.33% of 45Pts.
22. Toronto. 4-3-1 (9/16pts) 13.42% of 67pts.
21. Vancouver. 3-4-1 (7/16pts) 14.58% of 48Pts.
20. Washington. 5-3 (10/16pts) 14.93% of 67pts.
19. Buffalo. 2-4-2 (6/16pts) 15.79% of 38pts.
18. NYI. 5-3 (10/16) 17.24% of 58Pts.
17. Philadelphia. 5-3-1 (11/18) 18.64% of 59Pts.
16. Dallas. 6-0-1 (13/14pts) 19.70% of 66pts.
15. St.Louis. 7-2 (14/18pts) 20.90% of 67pts.
14. Chicago. 6-2 (12/16pts) 21.43% of 56Pts.
13. San Jose. 6-1-2 (14/18pts) 21.88% of 64Pts.
12. Detroit. 5-5-1 (11/22pts) 22.00% of 50pts.
11. Minnesota. 7-2 (14/18pts) 22.22% of 63Pts.
10. Pittsburgh. 7-1 (14/16pts) 22.22% of 63Pts.
9. Los Angeles. 7-0 (14/14pts) 22.58% of 62Pts.
8. Tampa Bay. 8-2-1 (17/22) 22.67% of 75Pts.
7. NYR. 6-3-1 (13/20) 23.64% of 55Pts.
6. Columbus. 7-3 (14/20pts) 24.14% of 58Pts.
5. Florida. 6-2-1 (13/18pts) 25.00% of 52Pts.
4. New Jersey. 7-2-2 (16/22) 62pts - 25.81% of 62Pts.
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3. Boston. 9-0-1 (19/20) 72pts - 26.39% of 72Pts.
2. Carolina. 10-1 (20/22pts) 35.09% of 57Pts.

And with 36% of 50Pts coming from playing against the 4 other bottom 5 Atlantic Division teams;

1. Montreal. 9-2 (18/22) 36.00% of 50Pts.

To summarize, the top 10 teams to benefit from playing those bottom 5 up to this point in the season (60-65% into the season) are; 5 Metro, 4 Atlantic, 1 Pacific. And Toronto who is primarily accused of this “benefit” amongst the top 3 Atlantic teams is bottom 10, and the only one of the 3 not in the top 10.

Are these results surprising to you?and do you think the schedule makers should consider what has happened in the Atlantic for next seasons schedule (for example, some teams have played the Atlantic 18 times while Nashville has played them only 5 times (and only twice against the bottom 5). Had Nashville played them as much as Winnipeg, Nashville could be 8pts up on the Jets right now.
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