Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The National Hockey League season is coming to a close, with just a game or two remaining for every team in the Eastern Conference.

The eight spots for the second season have been claimed, with nothing more than the seeding left to be decided.  How did the shortened NHL season fair for the 16 teams in the Eastern Conference?

Teams that will be waiting for the draft lottery on Monday are the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, and Winnipeg Jets.  The Panthers are the odds on favorites for the top pick in the draft.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have guaranteed themselves home ice advantage as long as they are playing an Eastern Conference teams in the playoffs, having clinched the top spot in the Eastern Conference.  Washington has won their division, and has clinched the third seed overall.

Second place remains in play, as both the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens still have a shot at winning the Northeast Division.  Boston currently holds the spot down, with a game in hand on the Canadiens.  Montreal needs to win their final game of the season; and hope that the Bruins get only a point or none in the last two games of their schedule.  Montreal and Boston will end up with either the two seed, or the fourth seed.  Neither team can fall below that.

The Toronto Maple Leafs can clinch the fifth spot with a win in their final game of the season.  The Ottawa Senators are just three points behind the Maple Leafs – with a game in hand.  Even with a loss – Toronto can still keep the fifth spot, or fall no further than the sixth spot.

The final two playoff teams are the representatives from New York City.  The New York Rangers and New York Islanders hold the seventh and eighth spots with one game remaining for both teams.  The Buffalo Sabres can help the Rangers keep the seventh spot in the playoffs, forcing the New York Islanders to play the Penguins in round one by defeating them in the final game of the playoffs.

The Sabres will end the season at least six points out of the playoffs.  A loss to the Islanders and a win by the Rangers can increase that to eight points.

Would a full 82 game season have changed the fortunes of the seven teams that are not in the playoffs?  Has a shortened season helped the normally fairway bound New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs?

The Southeast Division has one representative in the playoffs – the division winner.  Buffalo is the only team in the Northeast not making the playoffs.

With a win in their final game of the season, the Tampa Bay Lightning would be the only non-playoff team in the Eastern Conference with a positive goal differential.

If the Buffalo Sabres can defeat the New York Islanders by more than one goal – the Islanders will make the playoffs despite being outscored by their opponents.

Mar. 16, 2013; Buffalo, NY, USA; Ottawa Senators right wing Chris Neil (25) and Buffalo Sabres defenseman Robyn Regehr (24) fight during the second period at First Niagara Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Buffalo Sabres fans woke up this morning with an empty feeling inside of them, as almost everything that could have gone wrong for the Sabres’ playoff chances over the weekend did just that: go wrong.  Big time.

Heading into Saturday’s game with the Ottawa Senators, the Sabres were 14th in the Eastern Conference, but only five points separated them between the 14th and the 9th position.  Two teams, Tampa Bay and Washington, were tied with Buffalo, while two more teams, Philadelphia and the New York Islanders, were four points ahead.  The New York Rangers, previous owners of the 8th playoff slot, had fallen into the 9th position.  That is an awful lot of teams to have to leapfrog, but the Sabres had to feel good about the weekend’s slate of games: a home game against an injury-wracked Ottawa team, and a Sunday night road game against the punchless Capitals.  Two wins and a handful of losses by the teams ahead of them, and the Sabres could have jumped into a tie with the Flyers and Islanders by Sunday night.

Cue sound of reality crashing down upon us!

What should have been a win against Ottawa became an overtime loss, which, coupled with wins by the Flyers, Islanders, and Lightning meant that the Sabres had leapt over Washington, but lost ground to everyone except the Rangers.  Good, but not as good as it should have been.  However, that OT loss to Ottawa was nothing compared to the nationally-televised embarrassment the Sabres endured Sunday evening.  That loss, which was easy to see coming only 19 seconds into the game, put Buffalo right back behind the Capitals in the standings, and caused pretty much any Sabres fan who still hoped to see his or her beloved hockey team make a push for the playoffs to ask the question, “What went wrong this season?”

The answer: too much to discuss in this little post!

A quick look at the Eastern Conference standings looks like this today:

If the playoffs were to start tonight, there would be no teams from the great state of New York playing.  There would, however, be four Canadian teams preparing to do battle for the right to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup.  That’s amazing, made even more impressive by the fact that with the exception of the Ottawa Senators, not one of those Canadian teams were in the playoffs last year.  No one expected much of Montreal, Winnipeg or even Toronto this year, and Ottawa has been hammered by injuries – yet there they are, solidly in the mix of things.   I have no love for Montreal, but as for the other Canadian teams on this list, I find myself mildly interested in the prospect of watching them come playoff time.  Beyond that, I don’t like Boston, I thoroughly despise Pittsburgh, and have no interest in either Carolina or New Jersey.  Hence, if this is what the playoffs are going to look like, I suppose I will be cheering for either Canada or a team out West!

Feel free to leave your thoughts or predictions regarding the rest of the NHL season below, or follow me @theamazingMrS and chat with me on Twitter!

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