Race to the Finish: OOTS Watch... UPDATED MARCH 24

[stevethiessen]

Out Of Town Scoreboard, for those of you wondering what the heck an "oots" is...

FANTASTIC night for us Sunday evening. Only a single point for Minny marred an otherwise "perfect" night. Colorado: Blanked (and Forsberg hurt... haha. didn't see that coming. Can't he afford a bionic groin by now?!?), Nashville edged out, and Chicago a single point.

So what does this mean?

We've got two games in hand on Minny (81pts), Colorado (80pts), Nashville (78pts), and Columbus (73pts) and one game on Phoenix (73pts) and Chicago (73pts). Winning those games could really open a gap and give some breathing room behind us, meaning we could turn our focus to Calgary, who is the only team we don't have games in hand on, and they are only 2pts up on us.

3. MIN - 81 (70GP)
6. CGY - 80 (68GP)
7. COL - 80 (70GP)
8. VAN - 78 (68GP)
9. NSH - 78 (70GP)
10. PHX - 73 (69GP)
11. CHI - 73 (69GP)
12. CBJ - 73 (70GP)

Monday night we're pulling for St. Louis to break out of their funk, and beat the Flames, in regulation please.

Tuesday, pray for ATL over COL, DET over CHI, SJ over NSH, EDM over STL, (actually that game is a wash) and ANA over PHX. Nearly every game that night can have an impact... its gonna be a busy (and highly unproductive for me) few weeks...

[Cornuck]

Preds lose as the Sharks win their 10th in a row.

Flames face a desparate Washington team tomorrow as we be up against the Ducks.

Sets up another 'big' game tomorrow as 4 NW teams keep it close (too close).

[dr.dork]

March 18th:

Calgary gets blanked by Columbus (yay !!!!!!)

Nashville loses 4-2 to Washington (Washington taking a serious run at Philly/Boston)

Vancouver inching up to 6th spot, so if the playoffs start today, Vancouver plays Minny in first round. For the glass is overflowing crowd, if Detroit loses all their games and Vancouver runs the table (and all sorts of other weird shit happens) Vancouver wins the presidents cup. The statatisticaciianianianisnians are still working this one out as we go to press.

[antro]

For the glass is overflowing crowd, if Detroit loses all their games and Vancouver runs the table (and all sorts of other weird shit happens) Vancouver wins the presidents cup. The statatisticaciianianianisnians are still working this one out as we go to press.

that would probably involve some serious slo-mo reviews, that changed results going back in time on the premise that the canucks had actually scored about 20 more goals than they were given credit for.

even for the supremely optimistic, the president's trophy is officially out of reach:

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NHL.html

but this is a useful link for those of you who want to figure out what kinds of chances the nucks have to finish in what spots.

[stevethiessen]

Minnesota loses in a shootout tonight, so unfortunately, we can't pull ahead of them with a win tomorrow. That will have to wait unitl Friday, when we actually play them head to head, and can pull into first in the division with a win tomorrow vs. EDM and then a win against MIN on Friday. Chilcago also won, but I think they're already realistically too far back.

ST

[Madcombinepilot]

all should hold hands and pray for regulation wins from here on in... no more 3 point games!

[stevethiessen]

March 24 - COL blanks CGY and EDM outpaces MIN, so with wins Tuesday and Wedneday, we can STILL actually pull into first place. This is rediculous, and a fantastic result for us tonight. Now all that is left is for Colorado to fall out in favor of NSH or EDM, so that the backstabbing Foppa can watch from home.

crazy time of year...

[antro]

so is there some kind of magic number for (1) getting into the playoffs and (2) taking 1st in the division? or is it too complicated to actually calculate magic numbers, since every team is playing every other team so many times?

GO CANUCKS GO!

[Kikbutt_10]

Win'em all and we're in, that's all we need to know! but seriously we need to start making our games in hand stat to count, starting tonight with the flamers...

[stevethiessen]

This is our last chance to make that game in hand against CGY count, as afterwards they are off for a few days, and we burn that game in hand tomorrow night. After that, we're even the rest of the way. Magic number? 9pts as I understand it. We need 9 to clinch, or some variation thereof. It's pretty confusing to me, with the extra point for OTL. James Mirtle at www.mirtle.blogspot.com has the best system I can find, where he's got the following:

Western Conference (93 points to qualify)

1. Detroit - qualified, March 5
2. San Jose - qualified, March 18
3. Anaheim - qualified, March 22
4. Dallas - 2-4-0
5. Calgary - 2-3-1
6. Minnesota - 2-3-0
7. Vancouver - 3-3-1
8. Colorado - 3-1-1

9. Nashville - 5-0-1
10. Edmonton - 5-0-0
11. Chicago - eliminated, March 16, max 92 points
12. Columbus - eliminated, March 19, max 91 points
13. Phoenix - eliminated, March 18, max 90 points
14. St. Louis - eliminated, March 11, max 86 points
15. Los Angeles - eliminated, Feb. 18, max 78 points

so basically we can play .500 hockey through the end, and Nashville and Edmonton would have to run the table to pass us. This is reassuring. If i'm Colorado I'm panicking right now That's always fun.

[Grizzly]

I'd like to do more than just make the playoffs though (obviously) ... squeaking in to me means Detroit, SJ or Anaheim .... no thanks to all of them ... eventually we will have to face one of them I would think but it would be nice to get on a bit of a roll first ...

Grizz

[Haida Knucklehead]

I'd like to do more than just make the playoffs though (obviously) ... squeaking in to me means Detroit, SJ or Anaheim .... no thanks to all of them ... eventually we will have to face one of them I would think but it would be nice to get on a bit of a roll first ...

Grizz

If we squek in I would prefer Detroit out of those three. You never know about the goaltending situation. Hasek could get injured at any time and Osgood has had looked vulnerable at times.

Would not like to see them agains any of the 3 pacific teams.

on the other hand a NW matchup would be good. Can you imagine a 1st round matchup after the NW nine.

[Cookie La Rue]

No kidding, the weird thing is that i wrote down the last 10 games after the Dallas game which they'd won the week before.

I marked the games which they would be winning for projected 94 points.

But i don't know if i should be happy right now because everything was right so far.

The remaining predictions are: Minny W, Flames W, Avs W, Oilers L and Flames W......

If it helps, i don't know......