Heading Into the Final Weekend

How's this for exciting, eh?? Dieter is still managing to stay ahead, despite Don creeping up another two points this week. Dale has pulled another five points on Jeff to only be nine behind. Paul has put five more points on Caterina this week to pull ahead of her for the last money spot in the pool. That sixth place race is damn good. There's only 22 games left on the schedule and there's still a little bit of movement left.

Nominations for Player of the Week are in before the weekend and here they are... Jarome Iginla (Box 3) has 5 points despite the Flames not being able to win and clinch their playoff spot. He still has two games left on the weekend and one good game could clinch the award. He's up against Thomas Vanek (Box 19), who also has 5 points with two games left this week. Iginla's rival, Joe Sakic (Box 2) is creeping up along with six other players with 4 points as well.



Friday night is Southeast Division night in the league. The Thrashers and Lightning will play the Hurricanes and Panthers, respectively, to see who can claim the title. The Thrashers only hold a small one-point advantage on the Lightning, but do have their own destiny in their hands going into this evening. A Thrasher win and Lightning loss will sew it all up, but a Lightning win and Thrasher loss will have the teams swap in the standings. Third place is on the line tonight... should be a good night for the Eastern Conference.


In the only other game tonight, the Ducks will go to Dallas to take on their division rivals, the Stars. An Anaheim win will clinch the Pacific Division, while a Stars win will tighten up the race a little bit more. Both teams have clinched, it's just a matter of positioning now.

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Conference Seeding

With a lot of the playoff spots to be decided tonight, hopefully... the next logical question is who is gonna face who in the first round of the playoffs. Well, let's see if I can break it down a bit for you.

Let's start here in the West...


The Red Wings can clinch the Western Conference with a win in Chicago tonight. However, the fate for the President's Trophy is not in their hands heading into the evening. The Wings will want to clinch the West for home-ice advantage through the Conference rounds of the playoffs and have a chance at home-ice in the Finals. Their likely opponent in the first round will be Minnesota if they slump or Calgary if they trip over their own two feet at the line.


With the Ducks playing last night against San Jose, they will await the result of a couple games. They cannot fall out of second place tonight, but they may be able to inch a bit closer to Detroit if they lose. Who Detroit doesn't face will be Anaheim's likely opponent in the first round.


A Canucks win over the Avalanche will do two things tonight. It will guarantee a playoff spot for the Flames and it will win them the division title. The Avs will come out desperate tonight and since the Canucks have a 3-point cushion on the Wild, it would seem to me that it might not be the Canucks' night tonight. That's not at all what I'm hoping for, but I wouldn't be surprised either. The Canucks likely opponent will be from the Pacific Division, either Dallas or San Jose.


Nashville can get a stranglehold on 4th place tonight with a win against St. Louis at home tonight. The Preds would prefer home-ice if they are to get either Dallas or San Jose in the first round. The idea of spending one extra game in Big D or the Shark Tank should be enough motivation to make quick work of the Blues tonight.


A Predator regulation loss and a Sharks win would vault the Sharks into fourth place in the West tonight. The Flames with their own fate in their hands could just beat the Sharks for the last spot in the West... or... they can scoreboard watch the Canucks & Avs game and take the night off... until they feel they need to win. The Flames are on the road, so they might be scoreboard watching anyways.


The sixth place Stars are idle tonight. They'll face the Ducks tomorrow night, which should be a gooder for position. The Stars cannot drop any lower tonight, because Minnesota would lose the tie-breakers if they were to win tonight.


Speaking of the Wild, they have the opportunity to put an easy two points between them and the Flames tonight with a game against the Oilers. That's the only thing the Wild can do tonight is pad their lead over Calgary. They can't pass Dallas and they can't catch Vancouver... so they're just playing to keep seventh.

And that's the West picture for tonight.

If you read last night's post, you'll know the deal with the remaining playoff spots in the East. So, I won't go back into that here. I'll just get you up-to-date on where the East may finish up tonight.


The Sabres have already clinched the East... meaning home-ice throughout the Eastside rounds. They have a game in hand over Detroit for the President's Trophy. They play Boston tonight to keep up their chances for home-ice throughout. Got it? Good. The Bruins have been out for quite a while. Nothing doing there.


The Devils can clinch the Atlantic Division title tonight with a win in Philly. They'll move too far for the Penguins to catch them and second in the East will be theirs. Still no idea who their potential first round opponent will be. Your guess is as good as mine.


Atlanta failed to pad their lead in the Southeast last night, but fortunately have a free night to worry about their rivals gaining any ground on them. Their only chance of moving down the Standings will be if Tampa Bay can catch them. That won't transpire until tomorrow night. The Thrashers will be in Raleigh to face the Hurricanes tomorrow, a team with nothing to lose.


Finally! A real game tonight. A game where teams are actually battling against each other, both on the ice and in the standings. It's kind of epic, really. The Penguins can put themselves in a situation where fourth is attainable, but the Senators still have the upper hand with tie-breakers. A battle for home-ice advantage... a preview of the first round... this game will shape up to be the start of something wonderful. A hockey fan's dream. If the Canucks weren't playing tonight, I would be most excited to watch this one. If the Penguins win in regulation tonight, they will tie the Senators with points, but still be fifth on total wins. If the Senators get their two points, they will clinch fourth place in the East. It's as simple as that.

That's about all the seeding information I can do today... with the five teams still battling for playoff spots, it could potentially be all done in the East tonight. Then your playoff pool teams can be easily selected and submitted right away.

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Thursday's Effect on the Playoff Picture

There are two games on Thursday that should decide the Eastern Conference depending on how the chips fall. The Canadiens are in the Big Apple to take on the Rangers and the Leafs are on Long Island to face the Islanders. The Lightning are idle on Thursday night and will have to wait and see what they're up against on Friday night.




Any Islanders loss in regulation will eliminate them from any contention of 8th spot in the East. An Islander loss in overtime could eliminate them if the Habs and Rangers go to overtime. An Islander win and a Canadiens win and that should eliminate the Islanders as well.

A Ranger win will clinch a spot for the blueshirts. They'll finish the night with 94 points and that will be far enough out of reach from the Maple Leafs.

I know what you're thinking... can the Leafs be eliminated as well? A Toronto loss in regulation and a Montreal win will indeed solve the Eastern Conference eight teams.




Any combination of a Flames win or an Avalanche loss will solve the Western puzzle. The Avalanche will head into Vancouver to take on the division-leading Canucks, while the Flames will go to San Jose to face the Sharks. The Avalanche will still need regulation decisions in their favour to beat out the Flames, but hopes are dwindling as the Avs are winning.

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Tuesday's Implications

Not only are the Sabres in the playoffs, but they'll have home-ice through the Eastern Conference side of the playoffs, still with a chance for the President's Trophy. Their win against Pittsburgh Tuesday night gave them 109 points on the year, 5 clear of New Jersey who only have 2 games left.

The defending champs are out! Don't pick any Hurricanes for your playoff pool team. Their loss to the Lightning and Montreal's win over Bost was enough to seal the fate of the lifeless storm. No Eric Staal... no Cam Ward... no Ray Whitney... no Rod Brind'Amour. Only the Leafs and the Islanders are on the outside looking in.

They're still in! The Flames couldn't knock the Avs out of the playoff race, but don't count your Avalanche before they hatch. The Avs need to win their last three games (including one against the Flames) and the Flames need to lose their last 3 games to give it up. That's a big if!

On Wednesday, we only have two games with some implications...

The Atlanta Thrashers can move one point of their first division title with a win over the Capitals on Wednesday night. The Thrashers, who are only a single point up on the Lightning in the division, but they still have an extra game on their Southeast Division rival.


In the West, the Sharks will try to get a stranglehold on 5th in the West over the Stars when they take on the Ducks in Anaheim. The Ducks will try and tie the Red Wings for first in the West, but will still be down one game to the Wings down the stretch.


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Week Twenty-Six Newsletter

This is it... what it's all come down to all year. The final week of the season. Week Twenty-Seven is upon us. The money is getting polished up. The cheques are primed to be written. The anticipation is growing.

Dieter holds a 17-point lead over Don, who gained only 1 point on him this past week. There will be a few player battles to look forward to... Nash vs. Naslund (Dieter vs. Don), Iginla vs. Selanne, Huselius vs. D. Sedin, Beauchemin vs. Modry, Giguere vs. Nabokov, Kovalchuk vs. Alfredsson, Heatley vs. Ovechkin, Savard vs. Drury, Kubina vs. Preissing and Muir vs. Ward. That's a lot of players... so anything can happen!

The race for 3rd place is also getting a bit tighter. The difference is 14 points. The gain last week was 9 points. It's also not out of reach for Dale C. to catch Jeff. Eager anticipation grows to see the result.

Paul is only 3 points behind Caterina for 6th spot, the last money position. The closest race of them all... either you get your money back... or you get nothing. The drama... the excitement... the nail-biting. Hockey pool fever is reaching new temperatures. It's almost somewhere you'd like to travel for your vacation. Hot, hot, hot.

Continue to read through the week, I should be able to write up some more for the playoff races and the pool races as it happens. Don't forget... the playoff pool is now available. Download a copy of the rules by clicking this link and a copy of the selection sheet by clicking this link. Deadline for submissions is April 10th. Hurry!!

Hot Teams Over the Last Four Weeks:
Dale B.... 273
Brydon.... 262
Dale C.... 257
Larry..... 254
Caterina.. 252
Dieter.... 252
Don....... 252

Cold Teams Over the Last Four Weeks
Fred...... 145
Brian..... 164
Gerald ... 164
Mike W.... 174
John B.... 179

Let's see what happened in Week Twenty-Six...

Player of the Week



Well belive me when I say this... it pains me to write this column this week. As a die-hard Canucks fan, it pained me to see Miikka Kiprusoff (Box 6) not only getting this honour in my pool, but he beat my Canucks on Saturday night. Well, he's ended up with the week-high in points with eight... and no one decided to tie him in points... so it's gonna have to be him.

Kiprusoff and the Flames went 3-0-0, all road games, this week... beating Minnesota twice and Vancouver once. The first game, on Tuesday, was a 1-0 shootout win, which gave him the extra two points to carry him over the top. Not only did he shutout the Wild in regulation, but also shut them out in the shootout. It was a big week that left 25 teams smiling.

With very little movement in the Standings this week, it was sort of fitting to give Dale B., the biggest mover in the pool, the M&S award for this week. He's been really shaking out those points and moving up the ranks in the last couple months. I bet he's wishing it was only February, instead of the beginning of April. Dale has moved up 31st to 17th in the last 7 weeks, which is a lot of ground to cover in these late stages of the season. It's no wonder he's the hottest team in the last four weeks.

He managed to have a rather motivated team this past week which included; Kiprusoff (8 points), Jagr (6), Brodeur (6), Thornton (5), D. Sedin (5), Giguere (5), Ribeiro (5) and five others with 4 points. Not a bad week, eh? It should be noted that he's got 16th place in his sights and with this hot team, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he made it.

Unfortunately for Mike R., he had the week-low in points. On the bright side, Fred will never catch him for 40th spot, so he couldn't possibly get any lower in the Standings. I don't know how much consolation that can give a guy, but that's probably gonna be the best he's gonna get from me. Nine active zero-point players for Mike was all he could muster up. It was a pretty tough week for a lot of his picks, while a lot of his picks that weren't dropped could have been. Oh well, the pain and suffering is almost over.

Martin Brodeur & Sidney Crosby – 117 points
Three games remaining for the Devils and the Penguins. They're locked in a fight for the Atlantic Division title. Brodeur and Crosby are also locked in the midst of a huge scoring battle, which will conclude this weekend. The question is... will Marty sit for any of the last three games? He has played quite a few and he only needs two wins to break Bernie Parent's single-season win record. Crosby on the other hand will not rest... he leads the Penguin charge into the playoffs and will need to stay sharp for the second season.

Injuries
Box 6 goalie, Manny Fernandez, will sit for the last week of the season with his knee injury, with hopes that he'll take his spot in the Wild net come the first game of the playoffs. Until then, Nicklas Backstrom, will take his spot and may earn some first round playoff time as well. Backstrom could reach Cam Ward status, by winning the job on hard work and injury-luck for the stretch. Just in case you fancied the Wild to go a long ways, this is something to keep in mind.

Hockey Night In Canada this week...





TRIPLEHEADER! TRIPLEHEADER! TRIPLEHEADER! You heard it here folks, the last regular season edition of HNIC is a tripleheader. First, in the afternoon, the Canucks will be in San Jose to take on the red-hot Sharks. Both teams are jockeying for position in the West and this will be a clutch game to see where everyone lands. In the usual 5pm game, the Canadiens and Leafs will duke it out, possibly for the 8th and final playoff spot in the East. Only one point separates the two teams and it could very well come down to Saturday for who's in and who's out. Finally, the Battle of Alberta will conclude the HNIC season. The Oilers will send their battle-ravaged squad into Calgary to face the Flames who could still be looking to improve their standing in the West. It should all be worth while to see. Woooooo!! Tripleheader!

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