Conferences and divisions are supposed to be as balanced as possible, and that’s why there are rules about teams playing their own division more than the rest of the league – to balance out the standings. However, given the ebbs and flows of teams throughout the years it is impossible to expect that the divisions will always be close to equal.
Teams go through rebuilds, others ride dynasty waves, well others walk the line between buyers and sellers on trade deadline day.
Sometimes imbalances happen, and there is certainly an imbalance going on in the Central Division of the NHL.
Three of the NHL’s top six teams, Winnipeg, Nashville, and St. Louis, hail from the Central division. The Dallas Stars aren’t too far behind. The bottom three teams are the Chicago Blackhawks, who aren’t what they were but still possess some of the league’s top talent, the forever mediocre-yet-competitive Minnesota Wild, and a Colorado Avalanche team that is resurging after a historically bad 2016-17 season.
That’s a pretty good division.
To put it into perspective, there is one stat that emphasizes the Central division’s total dominance – Goal differential.
Adding up the division’s total goals for and subtracting their total goals against, the Central division’s goal differential currently stands at an unbelievable +100. Compare that to the rest of the divisions and the picture of which division is best in the NHL becomes a little less blurry.
Central: +100
Metropolitan: -5
Atlantic: -42
Pacific: -53
While goal differential is the tell-all stat that fans should look to, it is a fair indication of success in a league where wins and losses are decided by goal differential. Of the teams hailing from the Central division, only one has a negative goal differential – the Minnesota Wild with -1
With the Minnesota Wild taking on the +17 Chicago Blackhawks tonight and no other Central teams playing, a win would ensure that the whole Central division is in the green tomorrow morning.
Well, as long as they don’t beat the ‘Hawks by 18 that is…
