The capitals beat Tampa Bay tonight, so the magic number remains two.  The good news is that the Canes still control their own destiny.  Win friday, and they're in.

Lose Friday... and anything could happen.  We'd have 92 points, and we'd need Washington to lose.  If Washington were to win Saturday night, they'd have 94 points and would take the southeast division.

If *THAT* happened... we'd be stuck hoping that Boston and Philadelphia don't win any more games - both have two left.  The canes would hold the tiebreaker over Boston (who currenly has 92 points), and over Philly (who currenly has only 91 points), so the Canes COULD take a low seed if that were to happen.

But the chances are slim.  The best way for us to get to the playoffs is to beat Floriday tomorrow night.

See you there!

GO CANES!

Thanks to a great effort against Tampa Bay tonight, the Canes reduced their magic number to 2 tonight, with a 6-2 victory.  That's 2 points for us, or two points lost by Washington.  Personally, I hope Tampa Bay rebounds and beats Washington tomorrow night so I don't have to think about NOT going to the playoffs when I'm at the game on Friday.  I don't need that kind of stress.

Chad LaRose got a hat trick tonight.  His third goal (the Canes 6th) was a real goal-scorers goal, he took the pass from Eric Cole and skated in on the net and just fooled Mike Smith with some back and forth moves.  LaRose got Smith to commit too early and he made one last switch to the backhand (I think) and dropped it in the net.  It was a beauty.  I am bummed that I missed seeing it live.

See you Friday night!

GO CANES!

Okay, so the Hurricanes lost again last night to the Caps, leaving us tied with them for first place in the southeast..  Luckily, we've got the tiebreaker, so if it all ended today, we'd be in and they'd be out.

But we've got two games left - Tampa Bay tonight and Florida on Friday.  Lucky  Washington gets Tampa Bay tomorrow night and Florida Saturday night.

Basically, we've got to win.  If we lose tonight, our destiny is out of our hands.  Right now it's still in our hands, but we've got to win.

Go Canes!