Stars are Eliminated, We Have 16 Playoff Teams

The Dallas Stars had a shot at their own destiny on Sunday afternoon/evening, but they couldn't put it all together against a Minnesota Wild team that had a solid number of regular players out of their line-up. The Stars lost 5-3 to the Wild and that allowed the Chicago Blackhawks to back their way into the 8th and final playoff spot. With the Stars out, that eliminated Brad Richards, Mike Ribeiro, Jamie Benn and Kari Lehtonen from playoff contributions, but I don't personally think they had too much going for them into the playoffs anyway, so it might be a good thing that they are done.

With Dallas out and Chicago in, the West bracket now has Vancouver and Chicago, San Jose and Los Angeles, Detroit and Phoenix and Anaheim and Nashville.  Those look like four exciting, yet somewhat repetitive, series to engage ourselves in.  It's generally a good idea to work out your brackets before selecting your team, so I do have a page that can help get you started, click here.  I will be working on some posts through the day, when I have some extra time, trying to set-up some quick previews, find the injuries for the series and so on.  Stay tuned!

Now, with all the match-ups set, I'm expecting to see a whole flood of teams to descend on me before Wednesday night's deadline.  Do be sure to get your team and your money in as soon as possible.  I won't be posting teams on the standings page until money is collected, but if the team fits under the rules, I will have it entered and ready to go.

On Sunday night, the NHL did release their playoff TV schedule for the 16 teams and you can check that out via this link here.