Heading into Saturday night's action the NHL's Eastern conference has a logjam at the bottom of its standings. With only one week remaining in the NHL schedule and the playoffs looming every game is do or die for 6 teams.
Currently the standings are as follows:
Team & Points
6. Tampa Bay Lightning 88
7. New York Rangers 87
8. Montreal Canadiens 86
9. Toronto Maple Leafs 85
10. New York Islanders 84
11. Carolina Hurricanes 84
NEWS & NOTES:
Five of the six teams are slated to play on Saturday night, and Tampa Bay is coming off a big win over Carolina that has separated the gap between sixth and eleventh. Tampa Bay entered Fridays play tied with Montreal for the 7th seed and was able to pass over the New York Rangers. In another note, Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning was able to score his 50th goal of the season which as it sits leads the NHL goal scoring race. Tampa Bay hosts Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals Saturday night.
The Carolina Hurricanes have hit hard times as they have now lost 3 games in a row, two of which were against teams in the playoff race with them and once to the lowly Philadelphia Flyers. With their poor play of late they may be hard pressed to close the gap for a playoff spot. Carolina's next test comes Sunday at Florida.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have been pushing hard for one of the final playoff spots over the past week and have gotten a total of 7 out of a possible 10 points in their last 5 games. They are set to face Sidney Crosby and his Penguins on Saturday night.
Montreal enters Saturdays play coming off a tough loss to their division foes the Ottawa Senators. And the task gets no easier as they are to face Buffalo the Easts top team Saturday night. Good news for Habs fans is that Cristobal Huet has looked good in practice and good start in the near future if Guy Carbonneau dislikes his current tandems performance.
The Islanders could be hard pressed in the upcoming week without the services of their starting goaltender Rick Dipietro as he has suffered from concussion symptoms and will be out the remainder of the season. The Islanders are in tough against a good Ottawa team Saturday.
Possibly the hottest team in this race before falling to Montreal on Tuesday, the Rangers are winners of 5 of their last 6 and face the lowly Flyers tonight.
