We are halfway through an NHL season marked by pervasive mediocrity in which just 13 of 32 teams have won at least half their games — six in the dreadful East and seven in a more representative West.
That’s what you get in a league where collecting losers’ points (much like the Presidents’ Trophy, there is always confusion about where the apostrophe belongs) appears to have more impact than the number of regulation wins.
Nine complete 82-game seasons have been played since the current wild-card playoff format went into effect in 2013-14. Never has there been an Eastern qualifier with fewer than the Capitals’ 91 points last season. Three times, teams missed with 96 points.