With the NHL at pause for the Christmas break, there’s no better chance to look at how the Metropolitan Division stands at the moment.
Most teams in the division have played between 29-31 games, with only the Islanders (26) as a significant outlier that will need to make up more games than the rest. This same trend holds across the league, with 24/32 teams having currently played between the 29-31 game range at the Christmas break.
There is suddenly a log jam at the top, with three teams (Carolina, Washington, NY Rangers) separated by a single point, though that could be a bit skewed based on the respective games played.