For years, American Thanksgiving has served as one of the NHL’s most reliable predictive benchmarks. In the salary cap era, roughly 77 percent of teams sitting in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving ultimately qualify for the playoffs in April. Last season, 12 of 16 teams, or 75 percent, held their ground. It’s a trend coaches, executives, and fans have leaned on for years to separate early-season pretenders from legitimate contenders.
But this year the Eastern Conference might be breaking the model.
As New York Islanders fans wake up on Thanksgiving morning, their team sits in a playoff position, fourth in the Metropolitan Division and holding the top Wild Card spot with 28 points.