the playoff race in the western conference is essentially over. The wings locked up the #1 seed qquite some time ago, while Dallas and Calgary have already locked up their divisions and the #2 and #3 seeds. The only thing in dispute is the order of the 6-7-8 seeds.

The eastern conference, on the other hand, is FAR more interesting. while Ottawa and Carolina have locked up their division, they're still battling for the #1 seed (Carolina has a 1 point lead, each team has one game remaining), the Atlantic division is in limbo with Jersey's 10 game run making it interesting!

The Rangers have the lead with 100 points, but Philly and Jersey are right behind them with 99 points each. All three teams have one game left. And they all play on Tuesday.

Philly gets the Islanders, the rangers get Ottawa (go rangers!), and new jersey gets Montreal.

Of course, there are still three teams battling for the final two seeds as well - Montreal, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta. Atlanta is 9th right now but has the advantage of having 2 games left.

Montreal, on the other hand, currently 7th, has the DISADVANTAGE of having fewer wins than Tampa Bay, since total wins is one of the tiebreakers.

If Montreal loses in regulation and Atlanta wins their remaining two games, Montreal will be out of the playoffs unless Tampa Bay loses its last game too.

Atlanta *HAS* to win both of it's final 2 games to get in *AND* hope for Montreal to lose to the Sens.

I'd love to see Tampa Bay knocked out of the playoffs.. several scenarious could cause that, both requiring two Atlanta wins and Tampa bay either losing in regulation or losing in OT.

All of these games are TUESDAY night. None of the games tonight have any real playoff implications except for the first of the two Atlanta games.

Naturally, I'm rooting for Atlanta tonight just to make it interesting!

Ottawa's recent stumbles combined with our slightly better play have put Carolina in a position to take the #1 seed in the eastern conference when we play our final game on Tuesday versus the Buffalo Sabres.

In fact, there are 9 different scenarios that could occur on Tuesday with Ottawa and Carolina, and 7 of them lead to a #1 seed for Carolina (thanks to this blogger for the full breakdown.

The two situations that would NOT garner a #1 seed for the canes:

• Ottawa wins, AND
• Carolina loses in regulation OR overtime

An Ottawa win and a Carolina OT loss would leave both teams with identical records, and the goal differential tiebreaker would give the #1 seed to Ottawa.

Other situations would give us the same # of points, but would give Carolina the #1 seed based on the total wins tiebreaker (ie, an Ottawa OT loss and a Carolina loss)

Let's just not even worry about it and just beat the Sabres Tuesday night!

GO CANES!

Box Score

Josef Vasicek returned to the Canes lineup last night after missing 59 games following reconstructive knee surgery, and he wasted no time getting into the action, getting 2 goals and 2 assists, earning him the NHLs first star.  Welcome back, Big Joe!

I wish I could've been there last night!  Lots of fights, and the team showed plenty of toughness - although Craig Adams got into a fight and really just embarassed himself.  More power to him though.  If you're willing to drop the gloves when you get your ass kicked every time, well I can respect that.

And although it took overtime to finally put away the Caps, the important part is that we got 2 points and kept pace with Ottawa, who still leads us by 3 points for the #1 seed in the eastern conference.

Game 2 of the three game mini series versus Washington will take place Wednesday night, followed by the third game on Friday - also at Washington.  It's a strange season!

GO CANES!

Box Score

The Carolina Hurricanes wrapped up the southeast division championshp last night with a 3-2 win over the streaking Florida Panthers.  The Panthers, who had beaten the Canes twice in Florida a few weeks ago had won 7 games in a row.

It looked at first like we were gonna get more of the same - Florida scored first and early.  The Canes continued to be somewhat sloppy with the puck but Martin Gerber did the job keeping most of the pucks out of the net.

Craig Adams goal was one of the coolest I've seen all year - mostly because it involved just downright embarassing Roberto Luongo.  Adams had a breakaway rush on Luongo but it looked like Luongo was going to get to the puck before Adams could get to it and shoot it.  Well, he did, but Luongo does have a weakness, and that's playing the puck.  Luango went to backhand the puck harmlessly to the corner, and he basically whiffed on it, leaving the puck there for Craig to fire into the net.  It was awesome.

Carolina plays tonight at Atlanta - another team on the outside of the playoffs looking in.

GO CANES!