The Myth of the North Division


The North Division is weak. That's what many hockey fans would have you believe as the 2020/21 NHL season drew to an end. It's a sentiment mainly directed at the Maple Leafs and their franchise record Points Percentage of .688. The belief is that the division was extra weak at the bottom end with Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa. Truth be told, the last place Canucks have a higher points percentage than the last team in all other divisions. 

A simple way to compare the divisons is to narrow down the record of the playoff qualifying teams between themselves, thus eliminating the weaker non-playoff teams. If we look at each division's standings based on games against ONLY playoff teams, we get the following.

As shown above, Toronto ends up with the second highest points percentage against playoff teams, just behind Carolina. Does this illustrate the fact that the Leafs are just that much better than the rest of their division, even the other playoff teams? Critics could point to the fact that the North is the one division with only two teams over .500 (and remember, that's "fake-.500" using OT loss points).
Let's not overlook the fact that you could also say that Carolina beat up on a somewhat mediocre division, especially when you see Nashville won only 7 of 24 games against fellow playoff squads. In contrast, is the West Division the toughest division since the four team's points percentages were the most closely grouped?

So, digging deeper into the standings almost raises more questions than answers. I think it's safe to say that Toronto's season was not built upon the so-called lesser lights of the North Division. Also, Carolina in  four over Nashville...
 

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