Let's Go Blues

Blues somehow managed to get hot enough just in the 'nick of time'
honestly the final standings may make it look a lot less doubtful than it felt In that stretch when we couldn't beat LA or zona

don't particularly like our chances against Vegas or Colorado in the first round, but if Minnesota could sneak into first some how, that would be an interesting match up

with all but 1.5 spots wrapped up(Mtl has the last Canadian spot all but locked up and the final spot will be Dallas or Nashville), I thought it would be interesting to look at how the 'real' divisions performed in terms of teams making the playoffs in these mix and match covid divisions:

metro 5 - mtl, pitt, fla, wash, nyi
central 5 - colo, minn, stl, win, (dal or Nash)
atlantic 4 - tb, bos, tor, mtl

weak link er pacific 2 - Vegas, Edmonton

Not sure Toronto would be where they are given how weak the North is defensively. I will be seriously surprised if whichever North team reaches the Semi-Finals gets past 5 games.

Central is having an interesting ending...

Tampa vs Florida for the last two games of the season and will face each other in the 1st round. These two games determine home ice.

Carolina vs Nashville for the last two will likely face each other in the 1st round, unless Carolina wins both of these without giving Nashville any points and the Stars don't choke vs Chicago. Nashville has the tie breaker thanks to the Stars 22 ROWs and the Preds 29.

they talked on the broadcast last night about there fact Florida and Tampa have never met in the playoffs before

Nashville clinched 4th last night and will face Carolina in the first round

prez trophy down to Carolina or Vegas (?)

actually I guess Colorado could still finish 1st overall if they win out and Vegas and Carolina lose out

Colorado has 3 games. One of them is vs Vegas. If Colorado wins that game and their last 2 vs the Kings, even if Vegas wins their last game (vs San Jose), Colorado owns the RW (Regulation wins) tie breaker regardless of how these final 3 games playout. Colorado already has 32 RWs. Vegas has 29 with only 2 games left. Carolina has 27 RWs with only one game remaining. So were they all to end with 82 points, it would be 1) Colorado, 2) Vegas and 3) Carolina. Given the Blues porous D, were I Colorado, I'd really want that #1 seed and they are in control of their destiny. Beat Vegas in the H2H and it won't matter what Vegas does as long as the Avs beat the Kings in their last 2.

On that Florida-Tampa for the first time thing - that's true of most teams in the Eastern Conference and the Florida Panthers. In the Panthers 27 seasons, they've been in the playoffs 6 times and been past the 1st round (or qualifying round) once. Panthers have played the Islanders, Devils, Rangers, Bruins, Flyers, Penguins, and Avs in the playoffs. In other words, there are more Eastern Conference teams they haven't faced in the playoffs than teams they've faced - by quite a significant margin, 6 out of 15 Conference foes faced. Soon to be 7 of 15 and maybe 8.