Atlantic Division Least Affected By Injuries, Southeast Most Affected

Our favorite UK-based blogger, LW3H, released the CHIP numbers for the first half of the season. CHIP, (Cap Hit of Injured Players), a metric developed by LW3H to measure the impact of injuries throughout the league for a given season is defined as follows:

The concept again - multiply each game missed by a player by his (annual) 2012/13 cap charge, then take the aggregate of these figures for each team and divide by 82. This indicator of value lost to a team by injury/illness is called CHIP (Cap Hit of Injured Players).

He's got the full breakdown by team up at his site Springing Malik, but here are some early takeaways:

• The Blackhawks, Bruins, Blues, Penguins, Canadiens and Ducks are all in the bottom ten, meaning they have been least-affected by injuries. They're all at the top of the NHL standings.
  
• The Wild have managed to dodge fate - they're a 46% Fenwick team, but they're moving up the standings. Part of the reason why has been health. They've been the second-healthiest team in the league.
• The Senators have managed to hang on despite leading the league in injuries.
• The Atlantic Division remains the league's healthiest - though the Flyers are #2, the Rangers, Devils, Penguins and Islanders are all in the bottom ten.
• The Southeast has been the league's most banged up division - Florida, Carolina, Washington, Tampa rank 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th in the league.
• The Oilers are 5th in the league with about 1/3 of their CHIP value coming from Shawn Horcoff's sunken knuckle. Oilers' management is also tied for the least evasive group in the league.
  
• The Canucks are 8th in the league in injuries, yet still have a lead in the Northwest. The Northwest is not a good division.

He also has a breakdown of injury by type, and concussions are second on the list, just behind knees.

Click through to read the rest of "The Pain Game"