I'm sick of the "American Thanksgiving playoff position" conversation that happens every single year in the hockey world. I say this with complete respect to longtime NHL executive Ken Holland, who is credited with introducing the idea.
You know exactly what I'm talking about: if an NHL team is in a playoff position by American Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November, this year on the 27th), they will probably make the playoffs. From 2005-06 through last season, 77.1% of NHL teams in a playoff spot on American Thanksgiving made the postseason. That ratio was as spot-on as mathematically possible last season, with six of eight teams in each conference that were in playoff position on Nov.