The most curious story to follow this season has been the disappointment of the Atlantic division and how that will affect playoff format discussions going forward. All five Atlantic teams are below the four Lakes teams in the standings and three of them will qualify for the post season over the last Lakes team. Manhattan and Atlanta weren't on the same level as the Great Lakes but they've looked very mediocre compared to the league so far, and their lack of ability to distance themselves from Baltimore, New England, and Tampa Bay is endemic of a larger problem where the entire division at this point isn't relevant to the league and is a constant punching back for the Great Lakes and the top two teams in each of the Western Conference divisions in Texas, Los Angeles, Edmonton, and Calgary. They have a harder schedule than the western conference, having more Great Lakes games, but the division as a whole is averaging just 0.92 points per contest compared to the Lakes' 1.40 and the western conference's 0.98 each. They also score the fewest goals per game leading to an abysmal -100 goal differential in their combined 171 games played.

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