Wednesday, January 14, 2009

NHL Regular Season Games: Often More Than They Appear

It's interesting both how the outcome of games can both be impacted by things external and how individual games can then impact things down the line.

Geezie peezie... that sentence sounds mysterious (or maybe just confusing) as I read it now.

Anyhoo, to Wit...

Oct 30: Detroit at San Jose
Outcome - Sharks take a fairly convincing 4-2 victory.
Immediate ramification (for Sharks fans) - Whoo-hoo... best team in the league! Never gonna lose again. Detroit Can't touch us.
External influence - Detroit played a bruising overtime game the night before in Anaheim.

Dec 18: San Jose at Detroit
Outcome - Detroit scores 6, San Jose 0. Yea, pretty convincing.
Immediate ramification (for Wings fans) - Whoo-hoo... best team in the league! Never gonna lose again. San Jose Can't touch us.
External influence - San Jose played a hard-fought overtime game the night before in Columbus.

So... two good teams, both were good going into a game they clunked, both were good coming out. While it will be interesting to see what happens when the teams match up again Jan 17 after each has had a night off, both the Sharks and Wings will likely roll into the playoffs each being solid and knowing it.

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This matchup is illustrated to show how external factors can influence a game, but let's look at a different matchup, though, to see how the outcome of a game can impact things beyond...

Nov 13: Calgary at San Jose
Outcome - Sharks 6, Calgary 1.... and the game wasn't that close.
Immediate ramification (for Sharks fans) - We rule. Guess we can disregard that Flames team.
Immediate ramification (for Flames coaches & players) - Time to man up.
Long-term outcome (for the Flames) - Taken from this week's NHL Power Rankings by Alan Muir of CNNSI, Calgary has been dominate since this shellacking and are #4 to San Jose's #3 league ranking.

Jan 6: San Jose at Calgary
Outcome - Calgary 5, San Jose 2.

Which... takes us to tonight. Calgary at San Jose. What will it mean? Not sure... but, it's always fun to watch and see.

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