The drive for 95?

It’s not too early to start looking at how many points it might take to make the playoffs in the Western Conference. Last season, it took 91. That’s measured by taking the point total of the ninth-place team, and adding one point. In 2008-09, it took 90 points. In 2007-08, it took 89. In 2006-07, it took 96. In 2005-06, it took 93.

What’s the magic number going to be this season? Based on projections, right now it’s 93. If the NHL decided to end the regular season right now, and simply project the rest of the standings based on teams’ current point-per-game averages, here’s how the final conference standings would look.

1 Vancouver, 114.5
2. Detroit, 109.3
3. Dallas, 107.6
4. Nashville, 102.5
5. Phoenix, 95.4
6. Chicago, 93.7
7. Anaheim, 93.3
8. Colorado, 92.3
—–
9. San Jose, 92.0
10. Minnesota, 90.5
11. St. Louis, 89.0
12. Kings, 87.1
13. Columbus, 87.1
14. Calgary, 83.7
15. Edmonton, 62.8

The Kings have 34 games remaining, starting tonight. Under the theory that 93 would be the “safe” number, the Kings would need 42 points in their final 34 games to reach 93 points, the equivalent of a 21-13-0 record. That would seem to be a minimum. Today, Anze Kopitar set the number at 95, stressing the importance of piling up wins, quickly…

KOPITAR: “Right now, it doesn’t really matter where we are — at home or on the road — or whether it’s before the break or after the break. They’re all important. We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, and now we’ve got to climb out of it. We’ve got to win games. There’s no secret to it. You’ve got to be around 95 points, probably, to make the playoffs in this conference, and that’s what we’ve got to shoot for. I think everybody, in their minds, has it broken down, how many wins we’re going to need to get there, and we’ve got to do it. That’s just the bottom line.”