Team $ Efficiency

As I type this, the Washington Capitals are playing the Pittsburgh Penguins. Due to the way NHL Gamecenter works, I will have to watch the game in a few hours. When games are on NBCSN or NHLN, the games are blacked out on NHL Gamecenter. If your cable provider offers NBCSN and NHLN, well, that really isn't that big of a deal. If you live where I live, it is an issue.

In the meantime, I thought I'd take a look at each team's performance in the standings relative to their payroll.  I did a few spreadsheets that look at the money each team has to pay per standings point. I then compare their rank in that category to their projected finish in the regular season (pure rank order, not accounting for division leaders getting the top 3 seeds).

When you get to the difference between the rankings of "Payroll $/Pts 82" and "Pts/82" you are getting a handle on whether or not a team is outperforming its (in)efficiency.

For instance, the Washington Capitals have the 11th-highest (as in worst) Payroll$/Pts82 total in the Eastern Conference. That is horribly inefficient. 

The silver lining is, that given the Capitals are projected to finish 9th in the Eastern Conference, they have a +2 difference and are outperforming their payroll inefficiency.

Of course, they would still be playing golf by mid-April. But, what can you do? Hopefully Mr. DVR will have some good news for me in a few hours.

Standings are from NHL.com prior to the action on Wednesday night.  So, the Caps/Pens game and the Devils/Oilers games are not included.  Cap info is from Capgeek.

* You can click on any chart to enlarge it*

Eastern Conference:

Western Conference: