Saturday afternoon update: Greetings from Vancouver. Chuck Kobasew and Marty Havlat are on the flight, which leaves in five minutes. Wade Dubielewicz is on his way up and Anton Khudobin down.
Good morning. I've got an early flight to Vancouver today. I won't be at this morning's very optional practice, so I'll update the blog this afternoon with any news. The only thing I anticipate right now is a potential flip of backup goalies and Wade Dubielewicz coming on the road. That was the indication given to the scribes down in Houston last night.
I'm assuming Martin Havlat (ill) will be on the trip, but I'll confirm to you after I land.
Since I wrote the other day that all the Wild will get for finishing 13th in the West is the 10th pick in June's Entry Draft because Nos. 9-15 in the East had fewer points in the standings, I've gotten a lot of emails asking to explain how it's possible for such a disparity between the two conferences.
Incidentally, if the season ended today, the Wild would have the 9th pick now.
I threw your question at Wild director of hockey operations Chris Snow, who's good at analyzing such puzzles. Snow helped out a great deal, and here's the reason:
1. West v. East
West is 155-85-28 vs East. This means the West has taken 338 points in meetings between East and West, the East just 263. So, the West essentially 'took' 75 points (338-263) in those common games out of the East standings and put them into the West standings.