Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation.
Give the New York Islanders this: Through significant injuries (Mark Streit, Kyle Okposo), a relatively thin roster and several hundred goaltenders, they made it interesting and stayed in this race longer than expected.
Alas, the Flyers ended their playoff aspirations with a 4-1 win at Nassau Coliseum. For the fifth time in six seasons, the Isles aren't invited to the big dance. From the Daily News:
"Obviously, it's frustrating," goaltender Rick DiPietro� said, "but these last six games are still important for us. We have a lot of young guys this team, and it's important that we play these last six games and just keep trying to get better."
Meanwhile, the Western Conference is once again reshuffled. Anaheim's win over the Blackhawks propelled them into the No. 7 seed while Chicago dropped to eighth, just one point ahead of the Flames (with three games in-hand) and two points ahead of Dallas (over whom they hold a two-win advantage in non-shootout victories.
Coming up, the playoff pictures for the East and West, as we shift the focus to playoff seeding. The full NHL standings and schedules can be found on Y! Sports.
All playoff percentages are from Sports Club Stats; the Tragic Number is from NHL Standings and Magic Numbers. The former is an industry standard; the latter is a site we discovered this week, and are hopeful that the figures are as accurate as those from NHL Playoff Race. Also: For the Percentage Chance of Making the Playoffs, we've included the figures from Hockey-Reference.com (HR), which is crunching its own numbers. It's listed with the percentage from Sports Club Stats (SCS).
Head here for an explanation of the Tragic Numbers.
Here's the playoff picture for the Eastern Conference:
| Team (Games) | Place/Record/Pts. | Tragic # | % Chance of Playoffs | % Chance of 7th | % Chance of 8th |
| Montreal Canadiens (76) | 6th/40-29-7/87 | -- | 98.5 (SCS) 97.8 (HR) | 34 | 18 |
| New York Rangers (76) | 7th/41-30-5/87 | -- | 98.3 (SCS) 98.9 (HR) | 33 | 25 |
| Buffalo Sabres (75) | 8th/38-28-9/85 | -- | 91.5 (SCS) 92.1 (HR) | 26 | 45 |
| Carolina Hurricanes (75) | 9th/35-30-10/80 | 10 | 11.3 (SCS) 11.2 (HR) | 2 | 10 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs (76) | 10th/34-32-10/78 | 6 | 0.4 (SCS) 0.0 (HR) | 0 | 0 |
| Atlanta Thrashers (74) | 11th/31- 31-12/74 | 6 | 0.0 (SCS) 20.0 (HR) | 0 | 0 |
| New Jersey Devils (75) | 12th/34-36-5/73 | 3 | 0.0 (SCS) 0.0 (HR) | 0 | 0 |
Bad loss for the Hurricanes last night with the Rangers and Sabres both winning. Their playoff chances dropped 16.6 percent, and there is now 73-percent chance they'll finish ninth, according to Sports Club Stats.
The Leafs also took a tumble, too, and now have a 62-percent chance of finishing 10th.
Here's the Western Conference:
| Team (Games) | Place/Record/Pts. | Tragic # | % Chance of Playoffs | % Chance of 7th | % Chance of 8th |
| Phoenix Coyotes (77) | 4th/41-25-11/93 | -- | 94.8 (SCS) 93.5 (HR) | 19 | 12 |
| Los Angeles Kings (75) | 5th/43-26-6/92 | -- | 96.1 (SCS) 97.7 (HR) | 12 | 8 |
| Nashville Predators (76) | 6th/41-25-10/92 | -- | 96.2 (SCS) 95.7 (HR) | 15 | 9 |
| Anaheim Ducks (75) | 7th/42-28-5/89 | -- | 76.6 (SCS) 79.7 (HR) | 20 | 23 |
| Chicago Blackhawks (74) | 8th/40-26-8/88 | -- | 84.1 (SCS) 82.0 (HR) | 20 | 21 |
| Calgary Flames (77) | 9th/38-28-11/87 | 9 | 8.8 (SCS) 11.3 (HR) | 2 | 7 |
| Dallas Stars (74) | 10th/38-26-10/86 | 14 | 43.4 (SCS) 40.1(HR) | 11 | 20 |
| Minnesota Wild (75) | 11th/35-32-8/78 | 5 | 0.0 (SCS) 0.0 (HR) | 0 | 0 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets (74) | 12th/33-30-11/77 | 6 | 0.0 (SCS) 0.0 (HR) | 0 | 0 |
The Western Conference remains chaotic. Where else can the current No. 4 seed have a better chance of finishing sixth (23) than fourth (17)?
Two teams to watch here: The Kings, who have now lost their two leading scorers to injury but currently have just a 3-percent probability of finishing out of the top eight; and the Blackhawks, who have three games left with a team that would like nothing more than to send them out of the postseason picture: The Red Wings.
If the playoffs started today, they'd look like this.
Mississippi Brilla San Francisco Seals Pittsburgh Riverhounds FC Thunder Bay Chill Cleveland Internationals
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