{"id":304350,"date":"2025-11-24T19:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304350\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T19:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:24:08","slug":"atlantic-division-remains-wide-open-as-u-s-thanksgiving-mark-arrives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/304350\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic Division remains wide open as U.S. Thanksgiving mark arrives"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Hockey League season continues to roll on, and the race in the Eastern Conference has only gotten tighter.<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago<\/a>, the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> were on top of the conference with a 9-3-1 record, while the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers<\/a> were in the basement at 6-6-1, despite only six points separating the two.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today, and the East, particularly the Atlantic Division, has been flipped upside down. <\/p>\n

\"\"Eastern Conference Standings 11-24-25 Eastern Conference Standings 11-24-25 <\/p>\n

The Canadiens have dropped out of the playoff picture after going winless in seven of their past nine games, while the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> and Ottawa Senators<\/a>, who sat fifth and sixth in the division on Nov. 5, currently occupy the second and third spots in the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> (9-10-3) have struggled through various injuries throughout the season and now sit last in the conference with 21 points, dropping out of the first wild card spot they occupied on Nov. 5. <\/p>\n

Despite the shakeup at the top of the division, not much separates each team in the standings. The Detroit Red Wings<\/a> hold a one-point lead over the Lightning and Senators in the top three, while the Boston Bruins<\/a> also sit one point back of Detroit and currently hold the first wild card spot in the conference.<\/p>\n

Historically, the standings at American Thanksgiving, which falls on the fourth Thursday of November, are a strong indicator of what the playoff picture will look like. <\/p>\n

\"\"Eastern Conference Standings 11-05-25 Eastern Conference Standings 11-05-25 <\/p>\n

However, only six points separate the best and worst teams in the division three days before the American holiday, a stark contrast to the 21-point chasm between the Central Division-leading Colorado Avalanche<\/a> and the last-place Nashville Predators<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In a study done of the past eight NHL seasons by Blaiz Grubic of the Sound of Hockey<\/a>, he concluded that 76.6 per cent of teams in a playoff position at U.S. Thanksgiving would go on to reach the postseason. Teams holding the top two spots in their division at the milestone made the playoffs 89.1 per cent of the time.<\/p>\n

At this time last season, there were 12 points separating the first and last place teams in the Atlantic Division. <\/p>\n

Nine teams have played at least seven overtime games this season, while another eight have played six. The high volume of overtime points could explain the tight-knit standings in the Eastern Conference, leading to the uncertain playoff picture at a critical juncture in the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Hockey League season continues to roll on, and the race in the Eastern Conference has only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-304350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}