|
The remarkably starless Stars come into town for the first and last time tonight. The Hawks won both games in Dallas: the first one coming in overtime on a dumb Brenden Morrow penalty, the second an outright smearing. Both teams enter tonight's contest on five-game winning streaks. Something's. gotta. give!!!
While the Hawks winning five in a row is no surprise, that Dallas did it too is rather puzzling. Here's a team that traded its captain to Pittsburgh, shipped Jagr out to Boston, and pretty much conceded the year, so it would seem. Except Ray Whitney is still there to compile points, Kari Lehtonen is still in goal, Jamie Benn is still good, and so the Stars have gone and taken themselves from the draft sweepstakes to the 8th place sweepstakes. Right now, they're in ninth, and could get the help they need, but it will take help.
For those who like to amass bad omens for the playoffs, 71 points clinches first place, and 76 points wins the President's Trophy. That said, it's pretty likely that the Hawks finish in first, so let's go to SportsClubStats and take a look at
EIGHTHWATCH 2013
Detroit: 26%
Dallas: 18%
Minnesota: 17%
San Jose: 12%
Columbus: 9%
Phoenix: 8%
St. Louis: 7%
Vancouver: 1%
Los Angeles: 1%
Minnesota is engaged in its annual ritual dance, The Circling Of The Drain, though it remains to be seen whether they can complete it without Cal Clutterbuck's mustache hair, by cracky, clogging the drain and keeping them in place. But no seriously if they do make the playoffs at this point it'll be because of Ryan Suter.
San Jose is not likely to sink to 8th. Vancouver and Los Angeles could be off the list by the end of the night.
Columbus plays five of its last six on the road, where they've won but six of nineteen games. Not bloody likely.
Same story with Phoenix, with four of their last seven on the road but only five wins out of twenty. However, if anyone can pull it off, it's those league-owned cocksuckers.
So really it's either going to be Dallas, Detroit, or Minnesota. Probably Detroit, maybe Dallas, and I have a funny hunch Minnesota finishes out of the draw altogether. That makes tonight's game important, if not to us, then certainly to the Stars. The Wings just won a must-win against the gomer Preds, which took a bite out of the Stars' playoff likelihood, and a loss tonight would surely take a bigger bite. Personally, I'd feel pretty good about facing this team (famous last words, I know), who are a bunch of rookies and Ray Whitney just sorta playing for pride and doing better than they should. It ought not to hold up in the playoffs. I'll always feel better about that than the familiar faces of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Franzen.
Remember this is WUNNA DOSE GREAT SEVEN O'CLOCK STARTS PAAAT so as to accommodate a national telecast on the Outdoor Life Network.
_________________ Molly Lambert wrote: The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
