East is East, West is best
John Kreiser | NHL.com columnist Mar 23, 2007, 12:45 PM EDT

Joe Thornton and the Sharks have been
the kings of inter-conference play this
season, with an 8-1-0 vs. East teams.
East is East and West is West. But when the two play each other,
there's no question that the West is the best.

San Jose's visit to Carolina Saturday night will be the 150th and last
inter-conference game of the season, the second under the current
format that sees teams play just 10 out-of- conference games during an
82-game schedule. Just as they did last season, Western teams have
gotten the best of their Eastern rivals. In fact, they're even more
dominant than they were in 2005-06.

With one game remaining, the West leads the series, 82-47-20, while
Eastern teams are 67-63-19. That's even better than last season, the
first under the new inter-conference format, when the West went
79-52-19 to 71-62-17 for the East. The Chicago Blackhawks (3-5-2) and
Columbus Blue Jackets (4-6-0) were the only teams from the West that
got less than half of the 20 points available in inter-conference play.

As they were last season, the Sharks and Vancouver Canucks have been
the best of the West. San Jose is 8-1-0 going into its game against
Carolina, and can match its 9-1-0 record of last season with a
victory. Vancouver was 9-1-0 last season and went 8-1-1 this season.
The Canucks also are the only team to go undefeated at home in both
seasons; the Sharks were 5-0-0 at the HP Pavilion last season and
4-1-0 this season.

John Kreiser
John Kreiser, who has covered the NHL since 1975, is NHL.com's man
behind the numbers. His column appears each weekend on NHL.com.
More by John Kreiser:
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With the Canucks leading the way, the Northwest Division has been the
best in the NHL this season at 29-14-7, including a 19-5-1 mark in
home games. Those games came against the Southeast Conference, which
has a league-worst 16-24-9 mark. Southeast teams went just 6-13-6 on
the road and are the only division with a sub-.500 mark at home (10-11-3).

Just enough? -- Snagging a few extra points against the other
conference might not sound like much, but it can make the difference
between winning and losing a division — or whether a team makes the
playoffs. Vancouver's one-point lead over Minnesota in the Northwest
Division stems from the fact that the Canucks got 17 points against
the East to 12 for the Wild. In the Central, Detroit has one more
point against the West than Nashville, but the Predators have a
one-point lead because they got 15 points against the East to 13 for
the Wings.

In the East, the defending Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes have more
points against Eastern teams than any of the teams they're competing
against in the race for the last three playoff berths. But the `Canes
have just seven points against the West, less than Tampa Bay (11), the
New York Rangers (12) and Islanders (11), Montreal (14) and Toronto
(10) — a big reason they're barely hanging on to the eighth and final
playoff berth as they try to avoid becoming the first defending
champion since New Jersey in 1996 to miss the playoffs one season
after winning the Cup.

Offense or defense -- The West's dominance of the East would appear to
be largely attributable to its defense. Of the nine teams that enter
the weekend having allowed less than 200 goals, only two (New Jersey
and the Rangers) are from the East. Also, of the 137 shutouts this
season, Western teams have 84, with every team having at least three —
a total seven Eastern teams haven't managed. Take out New Jersey's
league-leading 12 shutouts and the other 14 Eastern teams have managed
just 41. Seven Western teams have six or more shutouts, compared with
just two in the East.

But while Eastern goaltenders don't put up a lot of shutouts, Eastern
shooters are much more prolific than their Western counterparts at
ringing up three-goal games. Eastern players have 43 three-goal
performances to just 25 for Western players. Of the 12 players who've
had more than one, eight play in the East.

JOKINEN
Luck of the ... Finnish? -- Florida captain Olli Jokinen comes from
Finland, but he had the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick's Day. Not
only did Jokinen have two goals and three assists for a five-point
night, he went a career-best plus-6 (helped by a pair of empty-net
assists) — tying Toronto's Ian White (Jan. 4 against Boston) for the
best plus-minus night by any player this season. Two Panthers
defensemen, Ruslan Salei and Mike Van Ryn, were plus-5.

Wrong place, wrong time -- Unlike Jokinen, Boston defenseman Dennis
Wideman won't have fond memories of his St. Patrick's Day. Wideman was
in the penalty box for three of the four power-play goals allowed by
the Bruins in a 7-0 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. The
only other player this season to be in the box for three opposition
power-play goals was Toronto's Matt Stajan, who was in the box for
three of Detroit's five power-play goals on Dec. 9.

The shutout was a rarity in the Rangers-Bruins series. It was the
first by either team since New York won 3-0 at Boston on Feb. 3, 1994,
and Rangers' first against the Bruins at the Garden since a 4-0 win on
Dec. 8, 1991. The Rangers hadn't had such a large shutout win over the
Bruins since a 9-0 rout at MSG on Feb. 23, 1969.

LUNDQVIST
All hail 'The King' -- New York Rangers fans sometimes refer to
goaltender Henrik Lundqvist as "King Henrik," and he's doing his best
to live up to the name. Lundqvist has allowed just one goal in his
last three games, sandwiching the 7-0 shutout of Boston last Saturday
and a 5-0 win over Philadelphia on Wednesday around a 2-1 victory over
Pittsburgh on Monday. Lundqvist now has seven career shutouts — all at
Madison Square Garden. He has four shutouts in his 19 starts since
Feb. 3 after putting up just three in his first 92 starts.

Firing blanks -- The Washington Capitals set a season low by managing
just 10 shots on goal in Thursday night's 4-3 loss at Carolina. The
previous low was 11 by Atlanta against Tampa Bay on opening night. The
10 shots are the fewest in any game since the Caps had just 9 at New
Jersey on Dec. 4, 2003. The Caps were out-shot 41-9 that night in a
3-0 loss.


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