Not a huge shocker, but Blues are winning the "Which Central division team will be the hardest to eliminate in the playoffs?" poll on Nhl.com with 30% vote.
If you have the NHL Network, they're airing the Nashville-Pittsburgh game. It's a good chance to see Radulov and if he's that much better now. Plus, Malkin is a true pleasure to watch...Just scored his 44th of the season.
That's what I figured. A huge goalie like that doesn't just give up 3 goals on 7 shots unless something is up. Hopefully his struggles continue in the playoffs, especially if the Blues have to face him.
Nashville looks out of sorts. I know Pittsburgh is a great team, but damn. There's no puck support, losing battles, and Rinne can't stop a beach ball. The only player that has looked calm under pressure has been Suter. You can tell Weber is frustrated.
I remember someone posting that with the way Rinnie was playing and the number of games he has, he was bound of getting tired in the end of the season. Not sure if it still applies or that person was talking rubbish.
Looks like Daniel Sedin has a concussion from that dirty Keith elbow. That would be an incredibly entertaining first round series if the Hawks could drop to 7th (unlikely). But hopefully the Blues can capitalize if the Canucks can keep treading water. He's back in Vancouver so he won't be available for tonight's game in Dallas or Saturday's game in Colorado at a minimum.
Nashville and Detroit are sinking faster than the Titanic. At this rate the Blues won't have to win many more games to clinch the division (not that I'm saying they shouldn't!).
Blues are going to still have to win their games to stay ahead of Vancouver, who won tonight in Dallas w/o Daniel Sedin. The Blues' 1-2-1 stumble with no victory at all certain tonight either is making them quite vulnerable to Vancouver, and Detroit's about to put up some Ws and maybe get back into it.
Lowest Blues can be seeded is 6th. LA can only finish with more points than the Blues in one extreme scenario that would have the Kings in 3d seed in any event. No other Pacific team can surpass them. Chicago is next up with magic number of 6. Three ROWs the Blues get or Hawks fail to get drops that number by 1 as it would clinch the ROW tiebreak.
Lower playoff spot race, quick and dirty w/no long division:
3. LA +12, 8GR
7. DAL +11, 8GR 8. PHX +11, 7GR
9. SJ +10, 8GR
10. COL +9, 6GR
11. CGY +8, 7GR
Interesting in Montreal - Anderson returns to Ottawa nets and gives up two goals in the first five minutes. Bishop replaces him and gives up two more in the next five minutes. Montreal up 4-0 after ten minutes.
