2013: The NHL season that almost wasn't

If the Leafs make the playoffs it will keep the drunken, pugilistic, volcanic-vomiting Blue Jay bandwagon jumpers out of the dome for a while. That's something.

 

Well, there's that.

And Pierre LeBruns pleads with the hockey gods to make a Leafs/Habs first round happen

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9164390/montreal-canadiens-toronto-maple-leafs-playoff-series-crazy-good

One wonders if that series wouldn't generate bigger TV numbers in Canada than the Stanley Cup finals itself. Probably.

 

I doubt that Toronto will fall to a No. 7 seed. So the best way for that to happen is for Montreal to tank a couple of games and fall to the No. 4 seed.

I guess I would have to root for Toronto in that scenario.

 

Leafs beat the crap out of the Habs 5-1. Price lets in three goals on the first four shots he faced. Budaj comes in and lets in the first shot. That was it.

Schadenfreude, anybody?

 

No biting this time around?

 

I blame last night's Caps near collapse on the radio color guy, who kept rambling on about the defeat in the eyes of Tampa Bay's players when the Caps were up 5-1. He should know better. Anyway, four points up on the Peg with six games to go for each. Jets have the easier schedule as the Caps are done with the dregs of the Southeast, which the foundation of this seven-game win streak was built on. Washington gets five games against Northeast teams and a home game with the Jets to close out.

 

Winnipeg's been OK. The other three have been horrible. Outside of the Avs, the three worst teams in the league.

 

Surely the Caps aren't going to choke this away. They're not the force they once were, but I was impressed at how they seemed to have gotten their game together the past month or so.

Don't look now, but it's entirely possible the Red Wings' 21-year streak of making the playoffs could come to a halt unless they have a strong final couple of weeks.

 

At least under realignment we'll get rid of this BS about a division winner automatically making the playoffs and getting home ice advantage

 

Er, no they won't. The division winners, as well as the second and third place teams in the division, get automatic berths, and the division winner gets home ice through at least the first two rounds as the top seed in the little four-team mini-tournaments.

So if by some miracle of likely impossible math, all the teams in the Rangers division finish ahead in raw points of all the teams in the Canadiens division, only the top five teams from the Rangers division get in while the top three from the Habs division are also in. And the top two from the Habs division have home ice for the first round regardless of their point totals relative to the teams on the other side of the conference.

 

We'll find out tonight in Chicago if Dallas is for real.

They've won 5 in a row to climb back into the playoff race (currently in ninth). This after seemingly punting the season by trading Jagr, Roy and Morrow.