“8th Seeds, Who Wants Some 8th Seeds?”
Posted by jtbourne on April 1, 2010 · 26 Comments
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White rabbits!
Anyone else say that at the start of every month for luck? I’m gonna say my family’s been doing it for like, 15 years – the earlier you say it on the 1st, the better the luck that month.
Also, throwing perfectly good money into a well is good luck. Mutated clovers are too. Totally makes sense.
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Speaking of luck – with a little of it, could you see Calgary or St. Louis sneaking ahead of Colorado for eighth in the Western Conference?
Yeesssssss you could.
Colorado’s remaining six games see them play the Flames head-to-head once (tomorrow! Ooo), the Sharks, the Blackhawks, the Kings, the Canucks and a freebie against the Oilers (or is it?!).
They’re up two points on the Flamers (with a game-in-hand… at-hand?), so for conversation sake, lets say Calgary beats them tomorrow. They’d both have 89 points, and I could see Colorado being below .500 in those last five games, since, y’know, four of the five teams are ahead of them in the standings.
Weee, winning is fun!
Calgary, admittedly, doesn’t have a much easier schedule – Blackhawks, Sharks, Wild, Canucks – but all they’d have to do down the stretch is win three to catch the Avs. Exciting stuff.
I’ve included the Blues in the hunt too – six points out with six games to go, largely because they seem to be turning it around, and you never know. After winning three straight, they’re schedule includes games versus the Predators, the Stars, Blue Jackets, Ducks and Blackhawks. Five wins isn’t completely impossible, and might be enough to get it done, if the two teams ahead of them act like it’s the Eastern Conference.
So here’s to a great finish out West!
As for the East….
All I’m wondering is, “the Isles are three points up on the Maple Laffs, and play Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Pittsburgh to end the season. Could they fall far enough to steal the increased lottery odds?”
A fair question, no?
I think they can, only cause the Laffs can’t do ANYTHING right this year.
On a more relevant note, Boston, Montreal and Philadelphia all have 82 points while the Thrashers have 80 and the Rangers have 78. What a mess (congrats to Tampa for being 3-7 in its last ten, taking the title of “biggest blown opportunity” away from the Rangers at the last second).
Montreal has one less game left, but a joke of a schedule coming home (After the Flyers they have the Islanders, Hurricanes, Maple Leafs and an SPHL team, I think).
So wait… Boston/Montreal won’t be a 1-8 or 2-7 matchup this year? But it’s always like that….
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The NHL’s biggest “I can’t believe that guy doesn’t wear a visor” has to be Ruslan Fedetenko, right? Baby face, happy guy, plays a skill game, seems afraid, gets hurt (but not injured) a lot…. Everytime I see him I’m surprised. Who else is on this list?
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The NHL’s biggest “numbers-inflating roster spot” has to be A) Alex Burrows spot with the Sedins B) Steve Downie’s spot with St. Louis/Stamkos line or C) ??? Whatchu got? (Getting to wear a Capitals jersey?)
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The guy pumping it out in the picture below (Nick Lowe) is here for a golf weekend, then a few days at my place. You may remember his picture from a previous blog. In this pic, he just tied the game up with minutes left – I score on the next shift to beat North Dakota (that years version of the Sioux had Toews, Stafford, Smaby, Zajac, Oshie, Brian Lee, and was goaltended by Lamoureux or Jordan Parise), the weekend my Dad was in Alaska. Special times.
Solid one-knee pump.
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I'm a hockey player turned writer. After playing for Alaska Anchorage in the WCHA (NCAA), I carried on with an NHL tryout (New York Islanders in 2007) before spending a couple seasons in the AHL/ECHL (last year was 2008-09). My father, Bob Bourne, won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders in the '80's, as did my fiancee's dad, Clark Gillies. I'm now the web editor for theScore's hockey blog "Backhand Shelf."
The NHL’s biggest “I can’t believe that guy doesn’t wear a visor” Who else is on this list?
Tim Connolly!
You nailed it Andrew! I’m genuinely surprised by that.
I was just pondering the same subject and thought how pretty soon we’ll be making lists for “I can’t believe that guy still wears the Bauer 4000 bucket!”
First guy that came to my mind was Kovalev, but that’s not a great example.
//the Isles are three points up on the Maple Laffs, and play Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Pittsburgh to end the season. Could they fall far enough to steal the increased lottery odds?//
No, no, a thousand time no!!!!
Let’s go, Isles! WIN!
Tomas Kaberle doesn’t wear a visor. I find that somewhat surprising.
Best stat booster: anyone who plays with Ilya Bryzgalov. There. I said it.
p.s. Just thought of something Bourne. Were you one of the guys who knew which hand 95% of the guys in your league shot? After my 3rd year in the same league I knew alot (especially the guys who were also in for 3 years). I know a lot of NHL guys off the top of my head too. Were/are you like that? Who was the king of that of the guys you played with? I played with a guy one time that knew every guy that played regularly in the show, it was crazy.
Noooo, I was a complete space cadet at that stuff (nor did I care). But you’re right, that guy exists at every level. Apparently, my buddy that played with Paul Stastny says they call him “Stats-ny” cause he knows absolutely everything about every other player.
Justin Johnson and Nathan Lawson knew what too much about way too many people we played. But actually, now that I think about it, pretty much everyone who’s like that is either a centerman or a goalie (since “what hand is who” is relevant to their jobs).
I love the no-visor suggestions. I thought of another stat-inflating position: Duncan Keith’s D partner. Ahem.
numbers-inflating roster spot? I’m going back in time, but how about Semenko (With Gretz)? Or Probert (with Stevie Y)? Or anyone playing with Lemieux when he scored 199 points (What is Rob Brown up to these days anyway?)…
I always wondered about Kovalev. Maybe his issue is more gloves / slash guards, or heart.
Number One guy I can’t believe doesn’t wear a visor?
Everyone who doesn’t. Seriously…I’ll echo your sentiments Justin. You’re playing a sport where a frozen chunk of rubber gets shot around at 90+ mph on a regular basis. You’ve got to have drain bamage not to wear one.
Numbers-inflating roster spot?
A Maple Leafs goalie. Seriously…Just strap on the pads and watch your goals-against average balloon.
Steve Downie isn’t on a line with Lecavalier…
The guy who I remembered as being the most fortunate lineys is Robert Lang who ended up with a nice career. But i can still remember (wish i knew who said it) the announcer of Mario’s first game back when Lang was between Lemieux adn Jagr calling him the winner of the “lucky linemate” contest…still think that’s true.
Speaking of stat geeks, they did this story on Matt Duchene during the draft process. He is a self-proclaimed equipment geek and this reporter asked him about what brand and curve about a half dozen guys in the league use…he rattled them off no problem. Pretty impressive…
Yeah, Downie is playing with St. Louis and Stammer… who is having a fantastic season by the way! Notched #46 last year. Interesting race for the Richard, who wins it, Sid – 47, Stammer and Ovie – 46?
Player who’s stats are inflated, how about anyone who plays with Jumbo Joe in the regular season. Cheechoo, dynamite with Joe, bad without, Setoguchi, dynamite with, not so much without. This year is a bit of a different story seen both lineys were already pretty solid to begin with.
Guy I can’t believe doesn’t wear a visor – small guys like St. Louis, Metropolit and company.
About you’re the Leafs can’t do anything right comment, not going to disagree with it but if that is the case then they won’t pass the Isles because getting as far away from the bottom would be better for them because they don’t have the # 1 pick this year anyway. Boston hopes they stay put.
Martin St. Louis has to be the most surprising, he’s 3 feet tall and goes everywhere at 900 mph. As for inflated numbers has to be Burrows, 10th in the league in goals really?
Why do you hate me so much?
I’m going to laugh my head off the day the boys in blue and white start winning and everyone who ever dissed them jumps on the bandwagon.
It will happen.
I’m not on or off the bandwagon. I’m the rare impartial person about the Leafs. But I do think they’ll be around that 8th playoff seed in the East next year. If the East doesn’t fold.
I could never believe Sergei Zubov went ‘just face’, no visor, but he’s one to mention.
I’ll add newest (and my least favorite) Penguin Alexei Ponikarovsky to the stats inflating list. Dude has shown me absolutely nothing in his 13 games but manages to pick up 9 points thanks to riding Crosby’s coattails. He’s the new Warren Young without the heart.
That is a great pumpernickel by Lowesie
Nice Seawolf pic. My daughter has (2) signed gameworn Seawolf jerseys on her wall, #40 Nick Lowe and #12 Justin Bourne. Your blog rocks JB
Here’s a break down of the East and West I did last night on the UK hockey forum – so it’s not updated to include last nights games (e.g Ducks win over Avs), but gives a decent picture I think:
East – Already ‘in’ Caps, Pens, Sabres, Devils. Sens are 9 points ahead of 9th place so effectively safe also I think we can agree.
Otherwise it’s:
6th Philly 82pts – 6 games to go: @ Isles, vs Habs, vs Wings, @ Leafs, @ Rags, vs Rags
7th Habs 82pts – 6 games to go: vs Canes, @ Flyers, vs Sabres, @ Isles, @ Canes, vs Leafs
8th Bruins 82pts – 6 games to go: vs Panthers, @ Leafs, @ Caps, vs Sabres, vs Canes, @ Caps
———
9th Atlanta 80pts – 5 games to go: @ Caps, @ Pens, vs Devils, @ Caps, vs Pens
10th Rangers 78pts – 6 games to go: @ Tampa, @ Panthers, @ Sabres, vs Leafs, @ Flyers, vs Flyers
Others are now done basically – too much ground to make up on too many teams
Philly very much have the ball in their court as the 6th team and with 3 games against other bubble teams and the Leafs . I don’t fancy the Thrashers run in much!
But the Leafs could actually have a big say in the East! I bet Boston are feeling conflicted – if Leafs lose they might get a shot at Hall or Seguin. If the Leafs win then it helps the Bruins play-off push this season!!!!!
In the West – in Yotes, Sharks, Hawks, also gonna say Nucks are essentially safe as well and probable Nashville and by their good form we’ll say Wings too! LA are maybe ok but are on a skid, so:
7th LA 92pts – 6 games: vs Nucks, vs Ducks, @ Ducks, vs Yotes, vs Oilers, @ Avs
8th Avs 89pts – 7 games: vs Ducks, vs Flames vs Sharks, @ Nucks, @ Oilers, vs Hawks, vs LA
——-
9th Flames – 6 games: vs Yotes, @ Avs, @ Hawks, vs Sharks, vs Wild, @ Nucks
St Louis have 83 points with 6 games to go but am going out on a limb of sorts and saying they are done
So Nucks could have something of a say in this one!
You do know that even while linking on your own site that “http://previousblog/” won’t get you to a previous blog post right?
// bet Boston are feeling conflicted//
Nope. Lose, Leafs, LOSE!
I’m surprised Alex Semin doesn’t wear a full face guard made of bulletproof glass, and then another layer of kevlar covering that.