If you're like me, you've feverishly watched the Preds season by season, hoping they'd reach that 100 point threshold which virtually guarantees a playoff berth. While we're still busy keeping track of points and standings, one thing is for certain - no one is hitting 100 points this season. With 48 total games (and 14 in the books as of this writing), the question begins to surface: what is this year's magic number? Let's take a look back for a moment to each of our 8th place Western Conference teams year-by-year following the 2004-2005 lockout.

Looking at the numbers, 95 points is usually enough to squeak into the playoffs, though it's certainly no guarantee. The average of these point totals tends to point to this as well (94.28). Ideally, you'd want to want to make the playoffs in better than 8th place - but hey, we're speculating! Anything more is gravy, right? Below are 82-game point totals adjusted for this year's 48 game season:

(Equivalents are rounded to the nearest whole number)

So, if you see the Preds closing in on the high 50's, you can bet there's a great chance the playoffs will be coming back to Smashville! There's one more thing we need to know. How are the Preds doing right now? After 14 games, the Preds are earning points at a pace of 1.285 points per game. If they keep the current pace, they are on track for about 61-62 points. We're still pretty early in the season, but things are looking pretty good after the slow start and lengthy road trip. (Thank you, Pekka!)

The bottom line is, that the Preds would love to have about 40 more points over the next 34 games. Let's keep selling out the Bridge and help 'em get there!