The Brooklyn Gooner

As it stands, I think we're only going to get 7th, 8th or...if everything goes wrong, 9th. After their demolition job on the Sabres, the Devils (in 6th place) are 8 points clear with two games in hand. The way they're playing now, even our best hockey won't get us to 6th place (which is fine...I'd like to avoid Tampa Bay if at all possible).

We're on 70 points, the Islanders have 69 (with 2 games in hand). Buffalo has 1 game in hand, but are 7 points behind us, and Florida has also played 64 games, and are 8 points behind us. Behind them, I'd have to say that Atlanta (64 G, 56 pts) and the hapless Rangers (62 G, 55 pts) as well as Carolina (same as the Rangers) are done. D-O-N-E.

This is our schedule for the rest of our year:

Boston (A)
Carolina (H)
New Jersey (H)
San Jose (A)
Phoenix (A)
Los Angeles (A)
Anaheim (A)
Florida (H)
Toronto (H)
Colorado (H)
New Jersey (A)
New Jersey (H)
Buffalo (A)
Ottawa (H)
Boston (A)
NY Islanders (A)
Philadelphia (H)
Buffalo (H)

Errr......yikes. That sure is a bunch of tough away games, as well as games against teams way over .500. That's not exactly the schedule I'd have liked heading into the home stretch, but the Ottawa win gives me hope that if we can take a few points off of Jersey, Colorado, and Toronto, then we'll be in good shape for 7th if we beat the teams we HAVE to beat (Islanders, Buffalo, Phoenix, Florida).

For the Islanders:

Rangers (H)
Buffalo (A)
Pittsburgh (H)
Pittsburgh (A)
Toronto (A)
St. Louis (H)
St. Louis (A)
San Jose (A)
Anaheim (A)
Tampa Bay (A)
Florida (A)
Minnesota (H)
Tampa Bay (H)
Washington (H)
Philadelphia (A)
Carolina (H)
New Jersey (A)
Montreal (H)
Carolina (A)
Philadelphia (H)

To me, this seems like a much easier schedule...however, I don't know if I buy Rick DiPietro yet...especially in a playoff chase. There's also hope that they'll fall victim to the "new broom" situation in St. Louis, and hopefully they'll fall flat on their faces during that long road trip. I worry, however, about all those games against the Southeast Division...most of those teams are shite, and Tampa Bay might be taking it easy by then...they'll have the No. 3 seed locked up soon, I believe. We'll also have to hope that Philly can do us a few favors, too.

Finally, our last serious competition, the Buffalo Sabres:

NY Islanders (H)
Ottawa (A)
Ottawa (H)
Toronto (A)
St. Louis (H)
Washington (A)
Boston (H)
Boston (A)
Toronto (H)
Atlanta (A)
Tampa Bay (A)
Florida (A)
Montreal (H)
Pittsburgh (H)
Pittsburgh (A)
Columbus (H)
NY Rangers (A)
Toronto (H)
Montreal (A)

This is a case where we'll probably have to help our own cause...dropping those teo games against this team could cost us the season. Also, Toronto can REALLY help us by taking at 4 or 5 points off the Sabres in those 3 games. Boston and Ottawa can too, for that matter, by taking 3 points off them in their 2-game series. Besides that, we'll have to see how the Sabres do against a whole crapload of teams that they really should beat.

Looking at the schedules, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Sabres eke out 7th place, we finish in 8th, and the Islanders end up in 9th, but only by a point or two. With the games we have coming up, though, we may be lucky to make the playoffs at all. GO HABS GO!