The Blackhawks lost last night in a shoot out to the Devils. If they played that same game against maybe any other team in the league, they probably would have won 4-1 in regulation. As it was, though, they ran into quite possibly the greatest goalie of all time, Marty Brodeur. Unfortunate, but it's still worth a point, so not all was lost. Chicago has five games left in the regular season. They have a little bit of a cushion behind them, so I don't think they'll go in any worse than sixth, which is where they are now. Typically, I would say three points wouldn't be too much to make up, but in only five games, it might be tough. Not impossible, but tough. There are some good things to think that the Blackhawks might be able to bump up to fifth, though. For one, they play the Predators during this last stretch, which will be a huge game for both sides. They also play the Wild twice, which has been such a different team after the all-star break that it's confusing. Here's another rub, though. It's probably better off to finish sixth. The sixth place team takes on the third place team, which seems normal enough. Except, in hockey, the third place team is the worst division winner, which at the moment is the Sharks, who have 88 points. That would barely be good enough for a playoff spot at all and would make them better than only the Blue Jackets if they were in the same division as the Blackhawks. Whoever finishes fifth gets the Red Wings. You tell me who sounds like the easier out in the first round. In other news, baseball kicked off for real games, except that they are in Japan, so almost nobody will watch stateside. I'm told it's good for the MLB and getting the best Japanese players to come over, so I won't complain too much. But I sure didn't watch an inning of it and had forgotten about it, to be honest. My head still has April 4 as opening day in my head, though April 5 is more accurate. April 4 happens to be my brother-in-law's birthday, though, so it's easy to remember. That's just before hockey playoffs start, though, so I can take a day off from paying attention to hockey to take in all the glory that is Opening Day. No league does openers half as well as MLB. Comments are closed.
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