Playoff picture gets cloudy

Hockey Betting Lines

04/05/2010 - Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You know there's parity in the National Hockey League when the New York Islanders might make it to the playoffs this season, while the Boston Bruins might not.

With a week left in the 2009-10 regular season, Montreal, Boston and Philadelphia hold down the respective sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the Eastern Conference, but the Rangers, Thrashers and Islanders - currently on the outside looking in - could end up holding down those berths if the former lose their remaining games, and the latter win theirs.

Nobody wants a first-round match-up with the high-flying Washington Capitals, but the Thrashers, they of the one playoff appearance in franchise history, and the Isles, with four playoff stints in the last 14 years, will take any post- season play they can get.

Over in the Western Conference, the Calgary Flames, holders of the not-so- important ninth place position, lost a huge game to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, while the Colorado Avalanche, with whom the Flames began the day tied for the final playoff spot, beat the San Jose Sharks 5-4 in overtime to move a deuce clear of the Calgarians for eighth spot.

Truth is, both Calgary and Colorado could miss the playoffs and any two or even all three in the group of Anaheim, St. Louis and Dallas could slip into the final spots in the West, such is the tight packing of teams near the 85-to-89 point mark.

All we really know for sure is that the Washington Capitals are the President's Trophy winners and that the Edmonton Oilers will finish in 30th place this season.

The playoff picture is muddier than Lake Ontario at the moment. What is clear is that Canadian teams being at the bottom of both conferences may just be coincidental, but is still pretty darn embarrassing.

CROSS-CANADA CHECK-UP

MONTREAL CANADIENS: So much for the goaltending controversy in Montreal.

Jaroslav Halak posted back-to-back shutout wins on Friday in Philadelphia and Saturday at home to Buffalo, leaving little doubt as to who will get the call Tuesday on the road against the New York Islanders.

Both goalies are RFAs at the end of the season. If I'm general manager Pierre Gauthier, I'm thinking of keeping Halak and trading Price.

OTTAWA SENATORS: The Senators clinched a playoff spot last week, but had a mental letdown on Saturday, losing 4-1 to the surging New York Islanders.

Forward Milan Michalek has not played since suffering a knee injury in a 6-3 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on March 18. Defenseman Filip Kuba (back) has also not played since March 18. Michalek could be back for the playoffs, while Kuba good be gone for the season.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS: As the Maple Leafs' marketing department says, "Spirit is Everything." Yes, when the team doesn't do a lot of actual, you know, winning, then spirit is indeed everything.

The Leafs have lost three of four, with the only bright spot being a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres last Thursday.

The Leafs lost 2-1 to Boston in overtime on Saturday, helping to keep the Leafs in the 29th spot overall in the standings. The Bruins, of course, own Toronto's first-round pick in this year's draft in the Phil Kessel deal, and it could be as high as second overall.

The NHL draft lottery is held each year for the 14 teams that don't make the playoffs, but only the bottom five teams can land the top overall pick since no club can move up more than four spots or move down more than one place.

CALGARY FLAMES: The Flames lost their seventh straight game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, 4-1.

The Flames had won six of nine before Sunday's debacle in the Windy City, so credit the team for pulling back into the race for the final Western Conference playoff spot. The Flames sit two points behind the Colorado Avalanche for eighth place.

That makes Tuesday's home game against San Jose huge. In addition, if the Flames sneak in and the Sharks finish tops in the Western Conference, then Tuesday's game is a first-round playoff preview.

Hey, the Sharks have pulled some early playoff el-foldos before, so the Flames would do well to focus on this game - and hope like heck the Avs lose to Vancouver and Edmonton on the road this week.

EDMONTON OILERS: The Oilers lost 3-2 to the Phoenix Coyotes in a shootout on Saturday, but it wouldn't be a complete game for the Oilers without another catastrophic injury.

This time, Gilbert Brule is done for the season with a sprained ankle. Brule joins Ales Hemsky, Sheldon Souray, J-F Jacques, Ladislav Smid and Nikolai Khabibulin on the "out for the season" list.

If it's true you have to learn how to lose before you can appreciate winning, then the 30th-place Oilers should have learned plenty of lessons for 2010-11.

Prospect Jordan Eberle should provide a spark of speed, sass and scoring next season. And the Oilers have a decent chance at landing the No. 1 overall pick in the June entry draft. We're certain Oilers fans think Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin would look great in Edmonton colors.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS: Twenty-two-year-old rookie Michael Grabner grabbed headlines last week with his first career hat trick, which took him all of 17 games to register, in a 5-4 win over Anaheim.

The Austrian right-winger was the 14th overall pick in the first round of the 2006 NHL entry draft and was called up on March 17.

The Canucks won a wild one Sunday night against Minnesota. After Alex Edler scored an empty-netter to make it 3-1 for the Canucks with 55 seconds to play, the Wild proceeded to score two goals in 23 seconds to tie things up with 19 seconds left.

A Greg Zanon high-sticking penalty led to Sami Salo's slapshot winner at 2:15 of overtime.

The Canucks are home and cooled out at Northwest Division champs. The only question that remains is who their opening round playoff foe will be. If you're a Canuck fan, you're hoping to avoid Detroit in the first round. Although the Red Wings have looked merely human this season, they are a different beast in the playoffs.