With the regular season well behind us, it's time to look at the final "monthly" (OK, more like five weeks this time) power rankings for the year. As for all prior months, I calculated the rankings based only on the games teams played in March and April.

Since I have always operated under the assumption that measuring teams based not only on their record, but also on the quality of their wins, shows who's really best, I wondered if the rankings for the final month of the year might hint at who the hotter teams are going into the playoffs. And by extension, who might have an advantage in their first round match-up.

But since everyone really wants to get back to the games, let's keep this short and sweet:

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Last month, we asked the question, "Did the Islanders play well enough in January, given the competition, to be a playoff team?" The answer was yes, indeed!

This month? Well, not so much. So instead, I switched my attention to the other playoff bubble teams. Which playoff bubble teams have the momentum going into the final full month of the season?

But first, the usual monthly summary. Here's how teams fared in February:

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Two weeks ago, I made a post addressing what the Isles' playoff hopes were, based on the standings at the time, as well as strength of schedule (especially vs. the teams directly above them in the standings), and number of games those teams had remaining against each other.

Given the ensuing discussion - especially as it pertains to those saying the playoffs are within reach vs. those saying it's time to trade away some players - I said I'd go back and look again at the situation, right before the trade deadline. Has anything changed?

Reader be warned: Last time, I concluded that I wouldn't blame Garth Snow for trading players away, given how bleak the situation looked. If you didn't like what I said then (I actually hadn't given up hope yet at that point), you're likely not going to like what I say now.

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...that is the ... yada yada yada.

There's been lots of talk about here recently about the Isles' chances of making the playoffs, especially in relation to the trade deadline (should we trade this guy or that guy or will they be the ones who get us to the Promised Land?). On one side, you have people seeing the points differential between the Isles and 8th place slowly shrinking, and on the other, you have those who count the number of teams between the Isles and 8th and say it can never happen.

So I had some spare time during lunch today to analyze the hill our team must climb. Here's what I found.

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Hello again, people. I hope you're keeping up with Torgo's excellent continuing series comparing the Isles with all of the other teams in 10-game chunks.

So the Isles had a winning month in January. We are all noticing the team slowly coming together, hoping that there are more years in the Rebuild's rear view mirror than in its windshield. Many have pointed out that if the Isles performed this well the entire season, it would usually be good enough to make the playoffs.

I mean, that is good enough, isn't it? Instead of just throwing the monthly power rankings summary up and say "so... there's that!" like I always do, maybe I can actually put this one to good use by trying to answer that question: If the Islanders played the whole year like they did in January, would they be in the playoffs?

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Hi, all. If you're a stats nut, enjoy a little more to keep you interested between games (or between cable/channel disputes). If you're not, then move along. Nothing to see here.

So, last month, I showed how the Isles fared against everyone else in November, based on data from the power rankings that I whip up every week. By throwing out all data except for one month, we can (hopefully) get a better feel for our beloved Isles' progress as the season wears on. After the jump, we'll see how the Isles (and everyone else) did in December...

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Islander fans sure do like to analyze their team's progress, eh? Torgo made an excellent post recently, breaking down the Isles' record in 10-game chunks. You should check that one out.

And now it's my turn. As I have mentioned before ad nausem, the power rankings calculate how well the Isles fared against teams based on those teams' records. So I recalculated the power rankings based on each individual month. With that bite-sized amount of data, I imagine we'd have a better feel for how the boys are improving (or faltering) as the year goes on.

In fact, when I did this exercise last year (all in one post at the end of the season), we were hit with the reality that they only were strong enough to be considered "playoff caliber" for one month (February). Despite the other good months, their wins against good teams happened to be while those teams were sagging a bit, thus taking some luster off of the Isles' late season surge.

After the jump, I will show where the Isles stood given November's data, and perhaps even use the info to draw a conclusion or two (imagine that!)...

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Howdy all. During the regular season, Dom tirelessly compiled the "Power Rankings" published by various sports publications to see what the rest of North America thought of our little hockey club. As far as we could tell, however, the majority of these power rankings were nothing more than opinion polls (THN being a notable exception), similar to the Coaches and AP polls that make up the majority of the college football rankings. I'm not too impressed with what other people think about who's best, and came up with a way to rank teams based solely on who they played against. And thus, I finally found a way to contribute in my own little way to this site.

The power rankings formula that I came up with is actually quite basic and straightforward, and was intended to compare teams based on a limited number of data points (for example, 10 or 20 games per team). As the season wound down, it became apparent that that power rankings would greatly mirror the overall points standings, since there was a full season of data to draw from (and thus perhaps warranting a change to the formula for next year, but that's another topic for another time).

For now, however, as was suggested to me by various peoples throughout the year, I decided to go back to calculate the power rankings by month, to see how our team fared through both the good months and the bad. Since the playoffs, draft, and start of free agency are now behind us, now seems as good a time as any to slap this together, so here goes....

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Hi, guys. This is my first post on BBV, or any SB Nation site for that matter. I hope I have followed the rules correctly.

I noticed an article from CBS's local news webpage, stating that the Jets just cut Alan Faneca. I believe the Giants are looking for a Guard, right? The article stated that the move seemed rather odd, given how solid he's been, but I only watch one team religiously, and that team wears blue. Do you think he'd be useful? In an uncapped year, it couldn't hurt, right? I just figured I'd pass along the info, since I did a search for Faneca's name and nothing came up (well, nothing regarding him being a free agent).

Sorry if this was discussed earlier in comments to other threads, but I didn't see his name come up on a quick cursory view.

For what it's worth, here's the story: http://wcbstv.com/local/alan.faneca.cut.2.1653726.

Cheers!

Mike

(Yeah, the screen name has to do with another team. Sorry... I multitask).