The Loaded Central Division

Katie Baker on the NHL's Central Division:

This past week, the Detroit Red Wings set a new franchise record with their 15th-straight home win at Joe Louis Arena. Chicago captain Jonathan Toews, perhaps the league's most complete player, has five points in the Blackhawks' past four games. The St. Louis Blues have fallen only once in 2012, an overtime loss to Vancouver. And the Nashville Predators are 8-2-0 in their past 10 games and over the past month have sold out their arena for just about every home tilt. Whether you look at total points (which excludes the effect of who's got more games in hand) or points percentage (which doesn't), these teams all stand among the top 10 — not just in the Western Conference, but in the whole league. This is a stacked Central Division that truly contains all the elements. And I do mean the elements.

I looked at the standings the other day, and these four teams were in the top six in the Western Conference.  Now they are in the top five.  That is brutal tough.  At least the Blue Jackets are there with the worst record in the league to soften things up.