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                     G  W  L  T Pts    G  GA   GD   Last
1  1  Vancouver     80 53 14 13 119  368 249  119  9-5-3
2  2  Chicago       80 54 16 10 118  378 222  156 14-1-2
3  4  Hartford      80 48 20 12 108  373 255  118 10-4-3
4  6  Detroit       80 45 21 14 104  315 254   61 10-4-3
5  3  Boston        80 43 19 18 104  279 200   79  8-7-2
6  5  Los Angeles   80 42 24 14  98  337 251   86  6-8-3

7  7  Minnesota     80 20 48 12  52  290 411 -121  6-8-3
8  8  Philadelphia  80 19 47 14  52  369 464  -95  8-9-1
9 11  New York      80 16 53 11  43  277 415 -138 6-12-0
1010  Toronto       80 15 52 13  43  321 427 -106 3-10-4
11 9  Montreal      80 15 56  9  39  267 426 -159 3-14-0

The best team in the league for most of the season, the Canucks stumbled late. A loss at Chicago Feb. 21 ended a 21-game unbeaten streak and a home loss to the Hawks on Mar. 3 was the beginning of an 8-6-3 slump. Vancouver barely captured the President's Trophy and #1 seed with a 3-3 tie with Hartford in the last game of the season.

Vancouver was 4th in offense, 3rd in defense, and featured strong goaltending. LW Blaine Stoughton was 2nd in goals with 57, and C Ulf Nilsson had a 100-point season. D Larry Robinson was 2nd in hits (192).

The Canucks arguably had the best goalie tandem, with Glenn Resch and Gilles Gilbert both finishing in the top 6 in SV% and top 8 in GAA.

The Hawks were the hottest team in the league down the stretch, going 23-1-3 after Feb. 5, and fell just one point short of the President's Trophy. Chicago was 1st in goals (4.7), 2nd in goals against (2.8) and their +156 goal differential was 37 better than any other team. Chicago also had the most effective power-play unit (28.4%) and the best penalty-killing (86.2%).

Chicago overtook Philadelphia and Hartford in the final two months to finish with the most goals scored, and they did it with none of the top 5 goal scorers, though three players finished with 40+ goals: C Pierre Larouche (49), RW Dave Taylor (48), and C Darryl Sittler (44), who led the league with 11 game-winners. Taylor also had 71 assists, which put him 4th in the scoring race with 119 points and 2nd in the MVP race.

Chicago's goaltenders led the league with 6 shutouts and a .900 save percentage. Pete Peeters finished strong, allowing just seven goals in his last six games, and finished 5th in the Goalie MVP race, despite leading the league in both GAA (2.48) and SV% (.911). On top of all of the above, D Bob Murray led the league with 59.0 Corsi and 59.3 Fenwick, which sounds damn impressive.

The Whalers were 2nd in the league for much of the season, before dropping to 3rd. They ranked 2nd in goals and 6th in goals against. The offense had four 40-goals scorers, led by RW Mike Bossy (51). C Mike Rogers was led in assists (61) and points (105) and finished sixth in the MVP race. RW Al MacAdam (94) and LW Steve Payne (92) made Hartford the only team other than Philly with four 90-point players.

Mike Liut won the Best Goalkeeper Award, with a .901 SV% and 3.03 goals against in 51 games (3rd most).

Detroit battled Los Angeles for 5th place most of the season, before a 9-1-2 finish landed them in fourth-place ahead of Boston (by total wins).  Brian Trottier was hot down the stretch, with 13 points in 8 games in mid-March. Trottier finished 7th in scoring (104 pts) and shared the league lead with teammate LW Steve Vickers with 18 PPGs. Detroit's power play was average, which means it was pretty bleak without those two on the ice. Their penalty kill was 2nd best, no doubt helped by Trottier and RW Vaclav Nedomansky's 46 and 43 takeaways (4th and 5th in the league).

Boston was in 2nd place on Dec. 1, then began a slow decline that culminated with a drop to 5th place on the last day. The Bruins finished tied with Detroit on points, but the Red Wings had more wins. The Bruins had the stingiest defense in the league, averaging just 2.5 goals against. They led the league with 24 hits and 6.7 takeaways per game. D Rick Green led the league with 199 hits, and D Rod Langway and D Paul Reinhart were 3rd and 4th. C Butch Goring led the league with 53 takeaways and C Bobby Clarke was 2nd with 48.

C Dennis Maruk led the league with 8 short-handed goals. RW Guy Lafleur led the league with 92 giveaways.

Boston's goalies ranked 2nd in both shutout and save percentage. Don Edwards finished 3rd in the MVG rankings and was 2nd in GAA and 3rd in SV%. #2 man Michel Larocque was 7th in SV%.

The Kings were on the heels of Detroit for 5th place all year and briefly overtook them before falling back into their familiar 6th place. LA was 5th in offense and 4th in defense, but featured scoring champion and MVP Marcel Dionne, who had 13 power-play goals, 10 game-winning goals, and three hat tricks, including in a 7-3 win over Toronto in the last game of the season. Dionne led all forwards in minutes on the ice, and no other team's offense was so dominated by a single player. RF Lanny McDonald was second in scoring with 84 points, 54 behind Dionne.

G Gilles Meloche finished 2nd in the MVP race with the 2nd best SV% (.905).

The Kings stumbled a bit in March, with four losses to non-playoff teams—New York, Philadelphia (twice), and Minnesota—which ultimately cost them a chance to land in 4th or 5th.

Minnesota was 8th in offense and 7th in defense and never recovered from a nine-game winless streak in early November and lost seven straight in March before winning a season-best four in a row toward the end of the campaign.

G Tony Esposito appeared in a league-leading 67 games and (not surprisingly) led the league with 1702 saves and 95 great saves. The offense was led by C Gilbert Perreault (94 points), but no North Stars appeared in the top 10 of any scoring category.

Philadelphia had the leakiest defense in the league, allowing 5.8 goals per game, about a half-goal more than any other team. They were also third in offense, which turned Flyers' game into a pinball machine.  The team had an uncanny eight 6-6 ties, plus two 8-8 ties, with a few 8-7 and 7-6 scores sprinkled in for good measure.

F Charlie Simmer was the top goal-scorer, with 63, had a league-high four hat tricks, and finished third in scoring with 132 points and third in the MVP race. RW Danny Gare added 50 goals and LW Steve Shutt scored 45.

RW Paul Holmgrem was the only player in the league with two hat tricks; he was also  2nd in the league with 23 fights.

The Flyers showed more brawn than skill: they ranked dead last in faceoffs won (46.7%), hits per game (13.2), takeaways per game (4.2), but was 2nd in fights (60).

The Rangers were the definition of futility early on, going winless in their first 23 games before a 6-4 win at Maple Leaf Gardens Dec. 2. Take away that 0-18-5 start, and New York was a still-horrible 16-35-6. The highlight was a five-week stretch starting early February when they were 7-8-0, culminating with three straight wins in early March. New York had the 2nd worst power play (17.3%), the second-worst offense and the fourth-worst defense. LW Tiger Williams was the only notable league leader: he led the league with 25 fights, 264 PIM on 80 penalties, including 26 major penalties.

LW Brian Propp led the team with 34 goal and D Mark Howe led with 80 points. The goalies Glen Hanlon, Michel Dion, and Jim Corsi were not good.

C Wayne Gretzky led the league with 84 assists and netted 12 goals in last 10 games to finish with tied for 4th with 50 goals, but also was 2nd in the league with 81 giveaways. Take away the Great One, and Toronto's offense drops from average to sub-par. RW Rheal Cloutier (89) and C Bobby Smith (83) were the next highest scorere. Toronto had the worst power play (17.2%).

G Bob Sauve was decent, with a .893 SV%, but only played in 32 games, and the other goalies (Mario Lessard and Greg Millen) were not good. D Kevin McCarthy led the league with 112 blocked shots.

The Habs were dead last in scoring (3.3 goals per game) and 3rd worst in defense (5.3 goals against). G Wayne Stephenson played in 65 games, which was not a good thing: his .842 SV% was 15th of 19.

D Rob Ramage and D Borje Salming were 2nd and 3rd in blocked shots, with 107 and 105, respectively. Denis Potvin was 5th in hits. Salming led the league in minutes (2134, or 32.3 per game) and Potvin was a close second.

C Bernie Federko (38-56-94) was the top scorer and C Jean Ratelle netted 14 power play goals.