Every game matters in the NHL, whether it’s against the first place Capitals or the last place Oilers, but in the playoffs, it’s only about the 16 best teams. Moreover, some teams may have boosted their regular season record by playing in a weak division so I thought it would be interesting to see which playoff teams have the best record against other playoff teams.
The other thing I did is give a half win and a half loss for every game that went to overtime or shootout. The reason I did that is that there’s no shootout or 4 on 4 hockey in the playoffs so it doesn’t make sense to include them. I split them evenly because, if two teams are even after 60 minutes, they should have an equal chance of winning the game in overtime and I can’t just remove that game from the statistics. Here are the results I got:
| W | L | Win % | |
| Washington Capitals | 23 | 15 | 60.5% |
| Vancouver Canucks | 24 | 16 | 60.0% |
| Detroit Red Wings | 25.5 | 17.5 | 59.3% |
| New Jersey Devils | 24.5 | 17.5 | 58.3% |
| San Jose Sharks | 25 | 18 | 58.1% |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 23.5 | 18.5 | 56.0% |
| Ottawa Senators | 22.5 | 20.5 | 52.3% |
| Buffalo Sabres | 22.5 | 22.5 | 50.0% |
| Phoenix Coyotes | 20 | 21 | 48.8% |
| Los Angeles Kings | 19.5 | 21.5 | 47.6% |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 18 | 23 | 43.9% |
| Colorado Avalanche | 16.5 | 21.5 | 43.4% |
| Nashville Predators | 17.5 | 23.5 | 42.7% |
| Montreal Canadiens | 17.5 | 25.5 | 40.7% |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 16.5 | 24.5 | 40.2% |
| Boston Bruins | 17 | 27 | 38.6% |
Make what you want of this, they’re only statistics but it’s a little worrisome to see the Pittsburgh Penguins at 43.9%. The Vancouver Canucks are also a team that you can’t underestimate as they are number one in the Western Conference in these standings.