Black Hawks Clinch First Playoff Berth in 7 Years While Florida Starts circling the Drain
The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in what turned out to be a high scoring game. The Flyers netted 8 goals to the Male Leafs’ 5. Jeff Carter lead the way with his second hat trick of the season. The Flyers exploded for 5 goals in the first period and never looked back. Six different players scored for Philly pushing them into sole possession of 4th place in the eastern conference standings. The Leafs who are out of playoff contention are just finishing out the rest of their schedule, 4 games remain until their summer vacation kicks in. Probably not what they had planned when the season started. Oh well, there’s always next year for the Leafs.
The Florida Panthers road to the playoffs got a lot tougher with a loss to the Atlanta Thrashers. Florida is definitely not playing their best hockey right now. They sure are picking the wrong time of year to play flat. Maybe the sunshine in south Florida is getting to them or maybe they would rather be on the beach, either way their hearts just don’t seem to be in it.
Alex Ovechkin scored his league leading 55th goal of the season in as the Washington Capitals lost to the Buffalo Sabres in overtime 5-4.
The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 in overtime reaching the century mark in team points for the 5th time in the last 6 years and 9th time in their last 11 seasons. The Devils have been one of the NHL’s elite teams in the last decade picking up 2 Stanley Cup championships along the way.
Over in the western conference the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Nashville Predators 3-1. The victory clinched a playoff berth for the Black Hawks for the first in the last seven years. Chicago has been mired in mediocrity for the last few years and it’s good to see one of the original 6 ( teams the NHL started with in its inception in 1909 ) to make the playoffs. The Predators who are locked in a bitter fight for the last playoff berth missed their chance at adding to their point total. They remain 1 point behind the St. Louis Blues, if the season ended today the Predators would be on the outside looking in. Luckily for them the season does not end today, they have 4 games remaining to get their act together or they really will be on the outside looking in.
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Apr 4th, 2009 at 7:35 am
The Toronto Maple Leafs are definitely out of the playoff race but continue to play tough by scoring many goals each game but as well, failing to keep the rubber out of their own net. They play the boys from Montreal tonight in Toronto. Should be another high scoring game with many former Montrealer’s in attendance. Toronto has the jump on other teams as far as drafting college players to date. They seem to be more mature and physically developed then those junior players who will be available in the upcoming draft. They have already signed 2 players,1 of which is Christian Hanson who made his NHL debut last night with the Leafs. The hope of all teams that are now in position to qualify for the playoffs,is that nobody suffers any serious injury that would keep them from realizing the fruits of the long season that is coming to an end.
Apr 7th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Just an FYI…it was Carter first career hat trick.
Apr 7th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Thanks for making me aware of that. I really appreciate it, I always want to make sure what I’m writing is correct.