Gimme a raise

Attendance is going down, while salaries are going up: this is the state of today's NHL.

USA TODAY's estimated cap numbers for the 30 NHL teams:
New Jersey Devils* $49.7 million
Boston Bruins* $47.8
Philadelphia Flyers* $44.6
Colorado Avalanche* $44.4
Toronto Maple Leafs* $44.2
Buffalo Sabres $43.9
Phoenix Coyotes $43.7
Vancouver Canucks $43.7
San Jose Sharks $43.5
Minnesota Wild $43.1
Tampa Bay Lightning $43.0
Detroit Red Wings $42.9
Montreal Canadiens $42.9
New York Rangers $42.5
Ottawa Senators $42.5
Anaheim Ducks $42.0
Los Angeles Kings $41.9
New York Islanders $41.7
Dallas Stars $41.6
Calgary Flames $41.2
Carolina Hurricanes $41.1
Florida Panthers $41.0
Chicago Blackhawks $40.6
Columbus Blue Jackets $40.2
Edmonton Oilers $40.1
Atlanta Thrashers $40.0
St. Louis Blues $38.1
Nashville Predators $37.7
Pittsburgh Penguins $35.5
Washington Capitals $30.8
*Cap exceeds the $44 million limit because of injury exceptions.

The Caps are at the bottom, as we already could have guessed. But how has this translated into effectiveness on the ice?

It's still very early in the season, of course. However, the top five teams rank as follows in their respective divisions:
Devils- first (8 pts)
Bruins- fifth (3 pts)
Flyers- fifth (3 pts)
Avalanche- fourth (6 pts)
Leafs- second (8 pts)

Now, the bottom five:
Thrashers- first (9 pts)
Blues- fourth (5 pts)
Predators- third (6 pts)
Penguins- fourth (4 pts)
Capitals- fourth (6 pts)

What can we deduce from this? If one goes by the simplistic "Harvard" hypothesis that the team with the highest payroll must be the best, then it's interesting that three of the teams with the highest payrolls are doing so lousy, placing fourth and fifth in their divisions. Similarly, by those standards, it's somewhat surprising that a team with one of the lower payrolls (Atlanta) is first in its division, whereas the other bottom-five teams fall more or less where they should, payroll-wise (though they still do better than some of the higher-paid teams). So there you have it: higher payroll does not necessarily indicate a better team, and vice versa. No surprises there.

Speaking of Fatlanta, the Caps play the Thrashers tonight there. Let's hope they do a lot better than they did against the Thrash last Saturday night. In fact, let's hope the game is a lot like the one last night (though I don't see them chasing Lehtinen from the net any time soon, unfortunately).

LET'S GO CAPS!