The St. Louis Blues are 4-3-0 following last night’s loss to the Winnipeg Jets. While they’re still looking good from a points perspective, are the Blues faring even better if we reorganized the NHL standings from points to points percentage?
Does the league look much different? Keep reading to see which tier the Blues found themselves in through the first handful of games in 2024-25 and how close they are to moving up a rung.
Best of the rest
- Winnipeg Jets - 1.000
Heading into the season, I knew the Winnipeg Jets would be a good team, but without high-powered scorers, at least on paper, I was skeptical. So far, this hasn’t been the case, as this squad has a plus-17 goal differential and 27 goals in just six games.
The 0.600-plus club
- NY Rangers - 0.917
- Calgary Flames - 0.917
- Minnesota Wild - 0.833
- Washington Capitals - 0.800
- Dallas Stars - 0.714
- Vancouver Canucks - 0.667
- Ottawa Senators - 0.667
- Tampa Bay Lightning - 0.667
- Vegas Golden Knights - 0.643
- Utah Hockey Club - 0.643
- New Jersey Devils - 0.611
- Carolina Hurricanes - 0.600
While I saw the NY Rangers looking like one of the league’s premier teams, nobody saw the Calgary Flames or Minnesota Wild coming from out of nowhere. Maybe it will hold, maybe not. Also, props to the Ottawa Senators, Utah Hockey Club, and New Jersey Devils for their early-season successes as far as points percentage is concerned.
Still above 0.500
- Anaheim Ducks - 0.583
- Toronto Maple Leafs - 0.571
- St. Louis Blues - 0.571
- Seattle Kraken - 0.571
- LA Kings - 0.571
- Florida Panthers - 0.563
- NY Islanders - 0.500
- Detroit Red Wings - 0.500
- Columbus Blue Jackets - 0.500
- Boston Bruins - 0.500
The Anaheim Ducks lead this group and through the first few games of the year, they find themselves ahead of the likes of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, and Boston Bruins. As for the Blues, they’re at least over 0.500 still, and had they managed to upset the Jets last night, would have found themselves one rung up the ladder.
Ground to make up
- Buffalo Sabres - 0.438
- Pittsburgh Penguins - 0.438
- Colorado Avalanche - 0.429
- Chicago Blackhawks - 0.357
- Edmonton Oilers - 0.357
- Montreal Canadiens - 0.357
- Philadelphia Flyers - 0.250
- Nashville Predators - 0.167
- San Jose Sharks - 0.143
This one has been the most predictable, sans the Edmonton Oilers and Colorado Avalanche. But few of us would doubt that should we conduct this experiment again next month, both teams would find themselves up at least one tier. The Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins are another pair of teams that could claw their respective ways out of the basement in these rankings, too.