Fansided Friday – Golfers Addition
By Tim Redinger
Nope, its not the edition of Fansided Friday that is going to give away movie endings, but this is what could potentially happen to you if you face anyone of these teams in the final dozen games of the season; a loss to them could be a huge spoil in your teams plans for making the playoffs.
For the Buffalo Sabres, they have one game remaining against these teams, and need to make the points count if they are planning on joining the elite 16 for the playoffs.
We are going to start in the East this week, and the three teams in the East that are playing spoiler hockey are the New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens, and Carolina Hurricanes.
The New York Islanders bring up the bottom of the East, and while are realistically out of the playoffs, if they won out their remaining eleven games, they would end with 89 points, right now the Flyers have 89 points in fifth place, so if someone nose dives, and the Islanders win out, well lets not waste too much time. The longest winning streak to end a season in the NHL is 11 games, by the 2005-2006 New Jersey Devils. With another year seamingly ending early on the island, John Panarese looks at the Islanders identity, and wonders what goes on in managements heads.
Up next are the division rivals Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens almost spoiled the Sabres party on Monday when they tied the game in the waning seconds, only to have Tyler Myers blast one in overtime to secure the winning point. Again with 67 points and 11 games remaining, all Montreal can do at this point is hail mary and hope for a titanic proportioned nose dive from Washington, Buffalo, and Winnipeg; and hope that the Isles and Canes dont get hot. See streak information above. Canadiens did Sabres a minor favor by beating the Sens in a shootout, keeping them from getting too far ahead of Buffalo. Sabres may not have a hope or a prayer to catch Ottawa at this point.
The Carolina Hurricanes sit only two points ahead of the Habs and Isles, so an 11 game winout puts them in slightly better shape. Canes got off on the right foot by getting a shutout against the St. Louis Blue. If you scourge twitter, you can find the tweet where I sent in my bet picture to Kristina Kelly from Cardiac Cane after I lost our bet. I wont offer a link, saving your retinas, but if you must see it, its out there.
On to the Western Conference, where the Columbus Blue Jackets and Edmonton Oilers are bringing in the bottom of the barrel.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are officially out of the playoff hunt. Not surprised huh? Despite making changes in the off season, Union Blue chemistry never took foot, and with only 22 wins so far, a 12 game winout would put them at 75 points. There are five teams in the West with 78 or better points fighting for the 6-8th spot. There is hope in Union land that the Jackets will get to at least 29 wins this season. Fewest wins in a single season? 8 by the 1974-1975 Washington Capitals.
Our last team looking for an early off season is the Edmonton Oilers. Ian Wood explains to us what the final twelve games of the season mean. With 12 games remaining, the Oilers could win out and land in 7th or 8th, but they would need Colorado or Phoenix, and San Jose, Calgary, and Los Angeles to crash and burn.
Look at your favorite teams schedule, you could have a visit from a spoiler real soon.