Pacific Power

[Chips]

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

Also I used 8 teams because that's the number of teams that will play in the quarter finals. Not ten. Eight.

At the very least, your claim of clear superiority has no basis in reality. Three straight Cups with the consensus being that during that time that the Pens, Caps and Bolts have been the teams playing in the real Stanley Cup final is the much better indicator of which division/conference has been best until proven differently.

Also worth mentioning how the team finishing with very high points, among top teams, relied much on a super hot goalie to take them to the final, after beating their way out of a weakish division... the Jets gave the Knights a good fight, Fleury not playing insane could have changed that.
... only to get utterly dismantled by the Caps, who had made it to the Final by fighting through 3 tough opponents who battled them hard. Game by game, chance by chance I was far more concerned as a Caps fan in the first 3 rounds than I was in the Final. It was just bad.

Point being regular season is much easier than the playoffs, and a whole host of varieties impact your success in the regular season that don’t so much in the playoffs. Also the playoff format makes it easier for weaker teams to make the finals in certain situations. So it’s worth waiting until a team has multiple seasons before considering them proven as “great”

Not at all saying the Knights weren’t good but things get skewed. When they make the conference finals again this year or next I’ll then eat my words. (I hope the NHL succeeds in Vegas)
Regarding other people’s posts, I think at best the West is equal to the East this season.

 

[ChompChomp]

yet somehow represented the west in the finals 2 of the last 3 years.

To be fair, the fact that the Pacific has been west champ 2 out of the past 3 years can arguably be correlated (At least in part) to divisional playoffs. Last playoffs, Preds had most points in West (117), and Jets second most (114). Had the teams been seeded 1-8, it would have been impossible for the Preds (#1 seed) to play the Jets (#3 seed) in the second round.

 

[Alwalys]

To be fair, the fact that the Pacific has been west champ 2 out of the past 3 years can arguably be correlated (At least in part) to divisional playoffs. Last playoffs, Preds had most points in West (117), and Jets second most (114). Had the teams been seeded 1-8, it would have been impossible for the Preds (#1 seed) to play the Jets (#3 seed) in the second round.

You still have to win the games to proceed.

 

[Rubi]

They're 5th in pts %. Jets, Leafs, Lightning and Capitals are all ahead

Not any more. Lightning are the only team with a better %.

Lightning .776
Flames .696
Jets .667
Islanders .643
Leafs .633
Sharks .625

By your own logic the Flames are better than every team except Tampa.