Texas Stars Report on Defending Big D: Heading Out On The Road

The Texas Stars Report on Defending Big D...

Texas (13-8-1-1, 6th place in the West) finds themselves in a strange position just past the quarter point of the season. Despite holding a 7-2-2 record over their last 11 games , thereby gaining at least a point in 9 of their last 11, they sit in 6th place in the 8 team West Division.

A closer analysis of the rankings shows that Texas has at least two games in hand against every team above them in the standings, and they are ranked 5th in the division in points percentage. If we extrapolate all that out to an 80 game season, Texas would make the playoffs, albeit in a convoluted fashion.

Texas's division has 8 teams while the North Division has 7. If the 5th place team in the West Division has more points at the end of the season than the 4th place team in the North Division, then the 5th place team jumps over to the North Division and steals the 4th place team's playoff spot. This happened last year in the East Conference.

The West Division is very competitive this year and I imagine this situation will be triggered. For the record, Texas has a better points percentage than the #2 team in the North. It's dog-eat-dog in the West, and Texas had a week full of divisional rivalries.

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