On the Wings

Well, the playoff teams are all set for the Western Conference: Detroit, Dallas, Vancouver, St. Louis, Colorado, Anaheim, Minnesota and Edmonton. Colorado and St. Louis are tied with 97 points and will probably play eachother in the first round, since they are both winning and neither will most likely pass anyone but Colorado/St. Louis. The Wings are behind the Stars by 1 point (103 to 102) but they have one more game than Dallas has left in their season. They also have one more game than Vancouver who has 101pts. The bottom 3 teams could end up in any order, like the rest of the playoff teams can. Anaheim is at the top of the bottom 3 with 90 points with 4 games to go but Minnesota has 89 with 5 to go. Edmonton has 87 with 5 to go also. I’m not 100% sure which team I’d rather have the Wings play. I’d probably the Ducks, because we’ve beaten them in the past (though it took a couple multiple-OT games to do it in ‘97). I’d like to see the Wild go farther in the playoffs and I think a series with Dallas would be awesome for their fans, since they both are really Minnesota teams. I’m not so sure about the Oilers. They usually seem to play well against us. No matter what, it’ll be an interesting first round and a very tough playoff run for the Wings.

The East only has 6-playoff-spot clinched teams: Ottawa, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Toronto and Washington. I don’t know much about the East, so I won’t try to analyze it, though I am pretty sure the Rangers won’t make the playoffs, which I think is hilarious. They really make big-market teams look bad. It’s probably because of them that Bettman hates teams with money because I’d think it would be pretty tough to hate a team as successful as the Wings. I don’t care if Ottawa wins the President’s Trophy, as long as they get eliminated before the Finals so if the Wings make it there, they’ll have home advantage. The Sens have 105 points so they have a good chance of doing it. | NHL standings