Western conference extra points

So last night on twitter, @duckgirlie responded to a comment I made about how the West is currently owning the East, at least in terms of overall standings points.

Conversation here

I should point out that I don't know Zoe, but I adore following her on twitter, and that this response contained Exactly the right amount of snark that I think underlines all the best sports exchanges.

But anyway. It got me thinking: does the West lead the East in points standings because they're getting more "extra" points?

To NHL.com!

As of this morning teams from the East had accumulated 38 Extra points.
And the West... 38 extra points.

Huh, okay, but maybe the West is disproportionally scoring those extra points against teams from the West? (West on West OT action = 3 points stay in the conference; West on East OT action = only 1 point stays in the conference, yes?)

Against the East, the East has scored 19 extra points.
Against the East, the West has scored 14 extra points.

Against the West, the East has scored 19 extra points.
Against the West, the West has scored 24 extra points.

Oh, that is interesting.

Okay. So now say you take away all the extra points that the West has gained against the West?

You start with the standings looking like this:


Then if you subtract the extra points from the total points, you end up like this:


ooh, I like this


We'll leave the other extra points alone because they were more or less evenly distributed. But anyway, this means that instead of being in the 8th place, your #1 seed Bruins are now in fifth place. Additionally, Tampa Bay would eek into the top 10.

So rest easy, Eastern Conference. It could be worse.