Combined NHL regular season standings for 2009

by Dirk Hoag on Jan 1, 2010 10:04 AM EST

As the hockey world turns over the calendar to 2010, in anticipation of what should be a great Winter Classic game between Philadelphia and Boston today at Fenway Park (join the game threads at Broad Street Hockey and Stanley Cup of Chowder to follow all the action), let's take one last look back at 2009, shall we?

After the jump, I've got combined NHL regular season standings for the calendar year, covering roughly the last half of last season and the first half of the current one. How did your favorite team fare?

The following table represents combined regular season records for the 2009 calendar year, using the great tool at ShrpSports to look at the NHL standings after the games of December 31, 2008, comparing that to how teams finished that season, then bringing in the results so far from this campaign:

	2008-9, Jan. 1 & later					2009-10 to date					2009 Calendar Year					Total
Team	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	GP	W	L	OTL	PTS	Point %
New Jersey Devils	46	30	15	1	61	39	28	10	1	57	85	58	25	2	118	.694
San Jose Sharks	45	25	14	6	56	41	26	8	7	59	86	51	22	13	115	.669
Washington Capitals	44	26	13	5	57	40	24	10	6	54	84	50	23	11	111	.661
Chicago Blackhawks	48	26	17	5	57	40	27	10	3	57	88	53	27	8	114	.648
Pittsburgh Penguins	45	26	14	5	57	41	26	14	1	53	86	52	28	6	110	.640
Vancouver Canucks	44	25	12	7	57	41	24	16	1	49	85	49	28	8	106	.624
Buffalo Sabres	45	24	17	4	52	39	24	11	4	52	84	48	28	8	104	.619
Boston Bruins	45	25	14	6	56	39	20	12	7	47	84	45	26	13	103	.613
Detroit Red Wings	46	27	14	5	59	40	20	14	6	46	86	47	28	11	105	.610
Calgary Flames	45	24	19	2	50	40	23	12	5	51	85	47	31	7	101	.594
St. Louis Blues	45	27	11	7	61	40	17	17	6	40	85	44	28	13	101	.594
Nashville Predators	46	23	18	5	51	41	24	14	3	51	87	47	32	8	102	.586
Ottawa Senators	47	23	18	6	52	41	21	16	4	46	88	44	34	10	98	.557
Florida Panthers	45	25	14	6	56	41	16	18	7	39	86	41	32	13	95	.552
Philadelphia Flyers	45	24	17	4	52	39	19	18	2	40	84	43	35	6	92	.548
Dallas Stars	46	20	20	6	46	40	18	11	11	47	86	38	31	17	93	.541
Minnesota Wild	46	22	17	7	51	41	20	18	3	43	87	42	35	10	94	.540
Los Angeles Kings	45	19	21	5	43	41	23	15	3	49	86	42	36	8	92	.535
Phoenix Coyotes	44	18	24	2	38	42	25	13	4	54	86	43	37	6	92	.535
Columbus Blue Jackets	45	24	15	6	54	42	15	18	9	39	87	39	33	15	93	.534
New York Rangers	43	20	17	6	46	40	19	17	4	42	83	39	34	10	88	.530
Atlanta Thrashers	44	23	20	1	47	39	18	17	4	40	83	41	37	5	87	.524
Anaheim Ducks	44	23	18	3	49	40	16	17	7	39	84	39	35	10	88	.524
Montreal Canadiens	46	20	21	5	45	43	21	19	3	45	89	41	40	8	90	.506
Carolina Hurricanes	44	27	15	2	56	40	10	23	7	27	84	37	38	9	83	.494
Edmonton Oilers	46	21	19	6	48	41	16	21	4	36	87	37	40	10	84	.483
Toronto Maple Leafs	45	19	19	7	45	41	14	18	9	37	86	33	37	16	82	.477
Colorado Avalanche	45	13	28	4	30	42	23	13	6	52	87	36	41	10	82	.471
Tampa Bay Lightning	46	14	24	8	36	40	15	15	10	40	86	29	39	18	76	.442
New York Islanders	44	14	25	5	33	42	16	18	8	40	86	30	43	13	73	.424

There aren't too many surprises here, but I think it is worth noting that even with an underachieving W/L record compared to their Goals For & Against, the Vancouver Canucks hang in there at #6. With a couple more victories (or even a few overtime losses instead of regulation) thrown in, they'd be in the Top Four.

The performance of the New Jersey Devils during this time is truly remarkable, when you first consider the coaching change from Brent Sutter to Jacques Lemaire during the off-season, along with the fact that with just two overtime/shootout losses (the least in the league by a long way), their points were truly earned by winning games; the Devils total of 58 is a fair step ahead of 2nd-best Chicago with 53.

By contrast, the Tampa Bay Lightning are only held out of last place thanks to their league-leading 18 OT/SO "loser points". I guess when you lose that many games in total, quite a few will require extra time.

It's also interesting to see how awful Colorado was during the 2nd half of last season; even their surprising start this year can't lift them above 28th overall.

So how do you think your favorite team has done in 2009? Are things looking up, or is it time to tear things down and start a rebuild? Speaking from the Nashville perspective, fans have to be encouraged by how this team has produced a strong 1st half, thanks to the development of home-grown talent.

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