Important and Lovely Graphbits

Today I mentioned on Twitter that I’ve been checking the NHL standings, like, 45,000 times a day. Almost instantly I got a ton of replies from other Sabres fans basically saying, “Yo, me too. I can’t stop gazing at the standings.” I’m not even sure why I’m so captivated by the standings, but man, I’m bewitched. It’s sounds like you are too.

Just in case you’re somehow not bewitched, here’s how things currently stand:

It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The playoffs are finally starting to feel like a real thing- something that might actually happen. We still have a LONG way to go, and Lord knows nothing is set in stone (did you hear that, Hockey Gods? WE’RE NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR GRANTED), but the Sabres have put themselves in a good position. Things are going well.

If you’re like me, you’re also quite fascinated by the graphs at Sports Club Stats that track the Sabres chances of making the playoffs. Right now, according to Sports Club Stats, the Sabres have a 91.6% chance of making the playoffs. That’s pretty good, especially considering that they had less than 6% chance on January 1st. They’ve come a long way.

I’m still a fairly new fan, so I haven’t had any experience with charging towards the playoffs like this. This is exhilarating. I’m going to go so far as to say this is more fun than last year, when they made the playoffs with ease. The Sabres have clawed their way back into the hunt, and I’m incredibly proud of them. This season has been almost disorienting, and I mean that in a really, really positive way. There’s nothing quite like sloooowly realizing that you need to reconsider everything you thought you knew about your favorite team. Sometimes it feels great to be wrong.

One of the things I really like about this graph is how it’s such a complete picture of every twist and turn of the season so far.

But we haven’t crossed the finish line yet. There is still such a long way to go before they actually make the playoffs, and then, well… we’ll see.

You can do it, Sabres!

:)