Three Eliminations on Saturday, One More on Sunday?

Let's start in the Eastern Conference today, as the Atlanta Thrashers were the first to fall out of the playoff picture, bright and early on Saturday afternoon.  They dropped a 3-2 decision to the Bruins, which automatically eliminated them from contention, controlling their own fate on the way out.  It is too bad that the Thrashers got the boot so early, it would have interesting to see how Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd would have affected the Thrashers, if they had a first round opponent like the Capitals.  That would have been an interesting series, for a little while at least.

In the very next game, the injury-depleted Minnesota Wild were the next team to fall, as the Tampa Bay Lightning worked them over a little bit with a 3-1 victory on Saturday afternoon.  The Wild were holding onto hope for quite some time this season, but their recent run of 2-7-1 in their last 10 games saw to it that they wouldn't be participating in the playoffs this year.  It's kind of a good thing, with all the injuries that they have been suffering of late, there may not have been anyone left to actually dress for the team and it would have been an early exit anyways.

Not even the return of Zach Parise could hold the slim hopes that the New Jersey Devils had intact through another night of action, as they had dropped a 3-1 loss to the Canadiens on Saturday night, officially eliminating them from the playoff picture.  The Devils had a miraculous run in the second half of the season, just to get back into the playoff picture conversation, but the distance between themselves and the playoff teams just turned out to be too far and it all caught up to them before the last week of the season.  The team will be an interesting one to watch in the off-season, can they re-tool for another run next year?

On the clinching side of the ledger, only the Detroit Red Wings secured their spot in the playoffs, with their trip into overtime against the Predators on Saturday.  Detroit was going to make the playoffs in this stretch run, it was just a matter of when they'll make it in mathematically.

So, now we move to Sunday's action, which gets started awfully early and we'll start with the early game and it's implications.  The Rangers start the day in Philadelphia and they are in danger of falling out of the top eight with a regulation loss today.  The Rangers cannot be eliminated, but they will make things very difficult on themselves, if they do.

The next game on the schedule sees teams seven and nine in the Eastern Conference go head-to-head, so there is likely going to be some shifting of points and maybe positions from this game as well.  If Carolina can beat Buffalo in regulation this afternoon, the Hurricanes would pass the Sabres in the standings, via their series record this year.  A Hurricanes win would bring them up to a 3-1-0 record against the Sabres and the second tie-break (because they need it) would be theirs.  A Sabres win would put themselves in the driver's seat for a playoff spot, making it only a magic number of 1 win away.

The Red Wings host the Wild in another afternoon game, but this game really only means something to Detroit, who are looking to finish 2nd in the Conference, ahead of the Sharks.  The Red Wings trail San Jose by a point in the standings and both teams are even in games played going into Sunday.

The Blues and Blue Jackets also go in a 3pm MT game, but both teams are out of the playoffs and have no bearing on anything anymore, except for maybe some regular season pool scoring.

The Flames slim playoff hopes are desperate for a win again tonight.  Their death watch number is 3 points, which means a Flames loss and a Blackhawks overtime finish in Tampa Bay, or any combination of a loss and overtime loss, would result in the Flames being eliminated from the playoffs.  The Flames do have the Avalanche on Sunday night, so this could be a good game to keep their hopes alive, but they can't lose focus tonight.

The Blackhawks play host to the Lightning on Sunday evening.  The Hawks get a Bolts team that played yesterday in Minnesota and have already clinched their playoff spot, unlikely to catch Washington for the Southeast Division crown, so their motivation may be questionable tonight.  A Flames win and a Blackhawks loss continues to make the season a bit more interesting, as that would bring the two teams within 1 point of each other, but Chicago still has two games in hand.

Finally, the Ducks can clinch a playoff spot and help the Kings and Coyotes clinch their playoff spot with a win over the Stars on Sunday night.  The Stars continue to be the only team that can make some substantial noise in the Western Conference playoff race, from the outside, but another loss could seriously jeopardize that situation.  The Stars could go from a death number of three games down to one in 60 minutes and with some help.

A very interesting night of hockey ahead, to say the least.