The Icing On The Week: End of Season Greetings

This week has seen the conclusion of the race to see who will challenge for Lord Stanley’s Cup and although most teams were confirmed, the final games and the narrative around them were not without excitement.

In the East, we knew all the teams who would be competing in the postseason but had to wait until Sunday’s re-arranged game between the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins for the seedings to be confirmed. Out West there were four teams still in the running, although Dallas Stars bowed out after their 3-1 loss to Columbus on Thursday.

Previously, I mentioned that it would most likely be out of the Winnipeg Jets and those teams occupying eighth and above as to who prolonged their season and so it was with the New York Rangers eventually clinching sixth after being as low as tenth in the last eight weeks along with Ottawa and the Isles, Jets finished up in ninth. Last week’s games saw the Rangers score four against New Jersey (4-1 & 4-0) and Carolina (4-3 OT) amidst a 3-2 loss to the league’s bottom team Florida Panthers.

That sixth place finish means they will face off against Washington for the fourth time in five years. If they aren’t sick of the sight of each other yet, they will be by the end of next week.

Two teams who really dislike each other are the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.

Unfortunately, they will not be renewing hostilities in the first round after last week’s results. The Canadiens would have fallen to fourth overall in the East had the Bruins won the aforementioned game against the Sens and clinched the North East Division ahead of the Habs but a 4-2 loss ensured another Division title was heading to Montreal along with the Ottawa Senators.

That result gives the Leafs a shot at the Bruins and that may work in their favour. They have arguably benefitted from the shortened season this year and are arguably running into Boston at the right time.

Milan Lucic, irrespective of what the Boston Globe claimed after his assist Sunday, is struggling to find form and without the Vancouver born giant playing well the B’s struggle, Toronto will need to sort their defence out though. Ten goals conceded in their last four (5-2 v Tampa Bay & 4-1 v Habs) indicates something isn’t quite right and without Nazem Kadri’s early season goals (18 in total) results have been inconsistent. 5-4-1 in their last ten inconsistent.

The other Eastern Conference match up will be Pittsburgh versus the Isles. This one should be over in pretty quick fashion but take nothing away from what the Islanders have achieved this year. They have the player who I feel is a valid claimant for the Hart trophy in John Tavares and by finishing the season 6-1-3 have form coming into the series. It is their defence that will be the major concern though.

They are the only team from the East going into the postseason without a positive Goal Difference with 139 scored and the same amount conceded. Going up against a Pittsburgh team that led the regular season with 165 goals-for is not a prospect they will relish.

Meanwhile in the West things were as closely fought as always. The President Trophy winning Blackhawks along with the Ducks, Canucks, Blues, Kings & Sharks were already confirmed. That meant Saturday night was the night for a Red Wings, Wild and Blue Jackets shoot out.

Many feel the Wild have disappointed this season and, considering the Zach Parise – Ryan Suter bromance has stung Mike Yeo’s roster to the tune of over $15 million this year alone, it is difficult to argue against that. Bearing in mind Niklas Bakstrom, Mikko Koivu & Dany Heatley each earned a minimum of $6 million this year too and it is a good point well made.

This past week saw them lose to Edmonton and Calgary before clinching wins against the Kings and then the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night to scrape home in eighth. They were “rewarded” with a series against Chicago. The Avalanche were also in the mood for rewarding performances and sacked Joe Sacco after four years in charge.

The other team whom made the postseason was the Red Wings. That brought them a year closer to the Boston Bruins all time record of 29 straight playoff appearances by clinching their 22nd consecutive post season ticket.

It was difficult to see the Red Wings do what they managed this week after a year of inconsistency but four straight wins, featuring two shutouts, against Phoenix (4-0), LA (3-1), Nashville (5-2) and Dallas (3-0) enabled them to finish seventh and avoid Original Six rival Chicago. Anaheim instead of Chicago was a reward for a week that rolled back the years for Hockeytown.

The other two series will see the Canucks and Sharks & Blues and Kings face off. The bonus for perennial underachievers/bottlers Vancouver & San Jose is that one of them will actually make it to Round Two this year. With regards to the St Louis – Blues series if nothing else we will be entertained by the Kings Twitter feed. They’ve been piloting a second period “takeover” of their account from a celebrity you have to Google. It’s great.