After last night's game this is what the standings look like.  No more teams have solidified a spot in the playoffs.  So far St. Louis, Vancouver, Nashville, Detroit, NY Rangers, Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are all going.  As of today Los Angeles gets the 3rd spot in the west after Dallas lost to the Vancouver Canucks.  Washington is back in 8th place after Buffalo lost to the Penguins.  Here is a quick breakdown of how last night's games ended:

The Winnipeg Jets beat the Carolina Hurricane 4-3 in OT.  Former Hurricane and current Jet and Maple Ridge born Andrew Ladd scored the winning goal 16 seconds into OT.  Winnipeg sits 10th in the east with 80 points and is not officially out of a playoff spot yet but it isn't looking good.  Carolina has been out of the running for a spot for a while.

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabers 5-3.  Sidney Crosby had his  3rd four point game this season.  Crosby has only been able to play 18 games this season because of concussion problems.  But Sid the Kid is back.  Crosby becomes the 7th youngest player to hit the 600 mark in career points.  After last night's game Crosby has scored 220 goals and 381 assists being 24 years and 236 days old.  Crosby recorded 1 goal, 3 assists for 4 points.  Steve Sullivan scored 1 goal and 2 assists.  Evgeni Malikn scored 1 goal and 1 assist.  Pascal Dupuis notched 2 assists and Jordan Staal and James Neal both scored 1 goal each.  Former Canuck Alex Sulzer picked up an assist for the Sabers with Jordan Leopold, Thomas Vanek and Tyler Ennis all scoring the goals.  Buffalo sits 9th in the east with 86 points.  Tied with Washington but Washington has one more win.  Pittsburgh has already solidified a playoff spot.  Check out Sidney's 600th career point with an assist on the James Neal goal!

In what has become a common occurance Chris Higgins scored for the Vancouver Canucks.  Higgins scored the opening goal for the Vancouver Canucks just over 6 minutes into the game last night against the Dallas Stars.  With that goal Higgins had scored 4 of the last 6 Canuck goal dating back to last Saturday in Colorado.  But in a rare occurance Canuck 4th liner and gritty get under the skin of opposing teams Maxim Lapierre scored a goal and got 2 assists!  The Canucks beat the Stars 5-1.  Five different Canucks scored including Christopher Higgins, Sami Salo, Andrew Alberts, Alex Burrows and Maxim Lapierre.  Trade deadline pick ups Marc-Andre Gragnani and Zach Kassian assisted Lapierre on his 7th goal of the year.  Henrik Sedin assisted 3 goals, with Ryan Kesler and Jannik Hansen also picking up an assist each.  Victoria born and NHL hotshot Jamie Benn didn't score but did pick up an assist on the Steve Ott goal.  Jake Dowell scored the 2nd goal for Dallas.  Cory Schneider was a surprise starter for Vancouver last night after Roberto Luongo had a sore neck after practice.  Schneider made 28 saves for the victory.  Check the Lapierre goal below!

Oddly enough five out of the eight games played last night ended in 4-1 finals????
The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Florida Panthers 4-1.  RJ Umberger and Nikita Nikitin both scored twice for Columbus while Tomas Kopecky scored for Florida.
The Nashville Predators beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1.  Gabriel Bourque, Francis Bouillon, Alexander Radulov and team Captain Shea Weber all scored for Nashville while Jiri Hudler scored his 24th of the year for the Wings.
The Colorado Avalanche beat the Calgary Flames 4-1.  Mark Olver, David Jones, Milan Hejduk and Peter Mueller scored for Colorado while team Captain Jarome Iginla scored his 32nd of the year.  Calgary has a slim to nothing chance of making the playoffs sitting 11th in the west with 85 points.  Four points behind 8th place Phoenix.
The #1 team in the east the New York Rangers beat the last place team in the east the 15th place Montreal Canadiens.  Michael Del Zotto scored twice, Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards scored once and Rene Bourque scored the only goal for the Canadiens.  It was nearly a shutout for NY goalie Henrik Lundqvist with the Montreal goal being scored at 17:31 in the 3rd.
The Los Angeles Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-1.  Anze Kopitar, Mike Richards, Drew Doughty and Alec Martinez all scored for the Kings while Jordan Eberle scored his 33rd goal of the year to nix the shutout bid for the league leading shutout King Los Angeles King goalie Jonathan Quick.  Quick has 9 shutouts so far this year.


Today's Saturday line up is pretty exciting:
Boston plays NY Islanders (score is 6-3 Boston)
Ottawa plays Philadelphia (scored is already 3-3)
Buffalo plays Toronto at 4:00
Montreal plays Washington at 4:00
New Jersey plays Carolina at 4:00
Winnipeg plays Tampa Bay at 4:00
Columbus plays St. Louis at 5:00
Chicago plays Nashville at 5:00
Los Angeles plays Minnesota at 5:00
Anaheim plays Phoenix at 6:00
Calgary plays Vancouver at 7:00
and finally Dallas plays San Jose at 7:30  Enjoy X

If the playoffs started today this is what they would look like.  Since Tuesday the only other team to solidify a spot in the playoffs are the Nashville Predators.  Buffalo would be taking on the New York Rangers, St. Louis would play Los Angeles.  Detroit and Nashville would square off (good series to watch, both teams are from the Central Division and that is the strongest division in the NHL) and in the east Pittsburgh would be playing Philadelphia, another great match up.

Here is a quick recap of Wednesday and Thursday's game in the NHL:
On Wednesday:
The New York Rangers beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-2.  It was a scoreless 1st period and then Winnipeg got a 2 goal lead in less then 1 minute to start the 2nd period.  New York answer back with 2 goals later in the 2nd and 2 more in the 3rd.  Winnipeg sits 10th in the east with 78 points.
The weakest team in the west the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-2.  Columbus always had the lead and Detroit was always playing catch up.  Columbus was the 1st team officially out of playoff running this year with only 57 points and 25 wins total in 77 games.
The Los Angeles Kings beat the Calgary Flames 3-0.  Kings Willie Mitchell scored in the 1st, Captain Dustin Brown scored in the 2nd, and Justin Williams scored in the 3rd.  King netminder Jonathan Quick made 19 saves for his 9th shutout the year!  Quick has the most shutouts this year so far!  This game also saw Brent and Darryl Sutter battle it out from the bench.  Darryl is head coach for LA, Brent in Calgary.
The Dallas Stars beat the Edmotnon Oilers 3-1.  Michael Ryder scored twice and Mike Riberio scored once.  Alex Hemsky scored for Edmonton.  This win puts Dallas at the top of the Pacific Division and in 3rd spot in the west.  Edmonton is out of the playoffs with only 71 points in 77 games.
The Anaheim Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks 3-1.  It was a tie game after the 2nd period with cutie Bobby Ryan scoring for Anaheim and Ryan Clowe scoring for San Jose.  In the 3rd period Finnish Flash Teemu Selanne scored his 25th goal of the year and good Canadian boy Corey Perry scored his 36th of the year.
Finally the Vancouver Canucks beat the Colorado Avalanche for the 2nd time in a less then a week.  Chris Higgins scored the only goal of the night with less then 3 minutes left in the 1st period, short handed (meaning Colorado had a man advantage and a Canuck was in the penalty box) with a pass from Samuel Pahlsson.  The strongest player would have been Vancouver netminder Cory Schneider.  Schneider stopped 43 shots for his 3rd shutout this year!  Schneider's hot streak has now been extnded to 11-1-1!  Wow!  Check out Higgins short handed goal below and funny enough Higgins has scored the last 3 goals for the Canucks against the Avalanche.  Higgins scored the tying goal and the game winning goal last Saturday and now scored the game winning goal again!

Thursday ended like this: 
Washington beat Boston in a 3-2 S/O victory.  This was a big game for Washington because they are trying to get that 8th place in the east.  Both teams played hard and the 1st goal didn't come till the 3rd period with 7:59 gone on the clock and the goals were all scored in just over 10 minutes.  Washington's Brooks Laich scored the shootout winner.
The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-1.  Daniel Briere picked up 4 assists in the win and mini Wellwood Eric Wellwood (little brother to former Canuck and current Jet Kyle Wellwood) scored his 5th goal of the season.  It was a rough night for Toronto, their 11th straight loss at home and it  turned into a downhill spiral even before the puck dropped.  Jonas Gustavsson took a puck to the knee during warm up and was knocked to the ice and out of the game.  Backup goalie Jussi Rynnas stepped in for his 1st NHL start and he took his first shot of warm up to the chin.  Tough Break.

The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-4.  Six different Devils scored including hot shot Ilya Kovalchuk.  The night went to Ryan Malone who scored 3 goals for Tampa Bay and picked up a hat trick!  Tampa Bay sits 11th in the east.
The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins for the 2nd time in 3 days 5-3.  Sidney Crosby left the game briefly after taking a puck to the face but he soon returned. The Islanders are in 14th spot in the east.

The Minnesota Wild beat the Florida Panthers in OT 3-2.  Mikko Koivu scored the game winner with just 15 gone in the OT.  After this win Minnesota is still 13th in the west with 74 points.  They are out of the playoff running.
League leading St. Louis lost in a S/O to the Chicago Blackhawks.  Chicago always had the lead but St. Louis managed to always tie it up.  The goal in the S/O came in the 4th round by Blackhawk Dave Bolland.
In the final game to end last night the Phoenix Coyotes beat Pacific Division rivals the San Jose Sharks 2-0. Radim Vrbata scored both goals.  Ray Whitney also assisted both.  San Jose has 88 points and is in 9th place tied with Los Angeles who currently have the 8th spot.  Phoenix has the 7th spot with 89 points.


Tonight's line up looks like this:
Winnipeg and Carolina at 4:00
Florida and Columbus at 4:00
Pittsburgh and Buffalo at 4:30
Nashville and Detroit at 4:30
Montreal and NY Rangers at 4:30
Colorado and Calgary at 6:00
Los Angeles and Edmonton at 6:30
Dallas and Vancouver at 7:00  Enjoy X

This is what the playoffs would look like if they started today.  Buffalo would be playing New York, Jamie Benn would be returning to his native BC with his Dallas Stars against the Vancouver Canucks.  The former Stanley Cup Champs the Boston Bruins would to playing the surprise team this year the Ottawa Senators and the a great match up would be the one between the Detroit Red WIngs and the Nashville Predators.  Lets see what happened last night in the NHL!

The Carolina Hurricane put out any hope the Toronto Maple Leafs had of playoff contention.  In a 3-0 victory for the Hurricane, netminder Cam Ward stopped all 30 pucks for his 5th shutout this year.  The Hurricane are out of a playoff spot as well having only 77 points and 5 games remaining.  Toronto after this loss has 75 points and 5 games remaining as well.  Better Luck Next Year.

The New Jersey Devils beat the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 in a shootout.  The Devil's Petr Sykora scored in the 1st period and Brent Seabrook scored for the Blackhawks in the 3rd.  The shootout went to the 5th round.  3rd round shooters Patrik Elias of New Jersey and Patrick Sharp of Chicago both scored but the winning goal came in the 5th from Travis Zajac.  Both teams sit in 6th place in their respective conferences.

The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3.  This was the first time the Islanders have beat the Pens in Pittsburgh in more then 4 years!  Fran Nielsen scored twice, former Canuck Michael Grabner scored once and Kyle Okposo and David Ullstrom scored the other 2 goals for the Islanders.  Tyler Kennedy scored twice and James Neal scored for Pittsburgh.  In a rare occasion Sidney Crosby didn' t register a point in the game but did record 2 penalty minutes.  Evgeni Malkin got two assists, both on the James Neal goals bringing his grand total to 99 points!  All 4 goaltenders made the rotation last night.  After stopping 30 of 32 shots before the 3rd period Islanders goalie Evgeni Nabokov was replaced by Al Montoya who stopped 21 of 22 shots.  Pens goalie Marc Andre-Fleury allowed 5 goals on 18 shots in the first two periods and didn't return for the 3rd with an undisclosed injury and was replaced by Brad Thiessen who stopped all 7 shots he faced.  The Islanders sit 14th in the east and most likely out of a playoff spot.  These two teams meet again Thursday in New York.

In the most intense game of the night the Buffalo Sabres beat the Washington Capitals 5-1.  These two teams went into the game tied and it ended with Buffalo in a 2 point lead over the Capitals and 8th place in the east.  The Sabres dominated the game from the beginning.  By dominated I mean goalie Ryan Miller dominated.  Miller stopped 10 shots in the 1st period, 15 out of 16 in the second and an amazing 19 shots in the 3rd period!  Miller stopped 44 of 45 shots total!  Buffalo took 31 shots total and 22 alone came from Drew Stafford (5 shots), Jason Pominville (6 shots), Thomas Vanek (6 shots) and Cody Hodgson (5 shots).  Jason Pominville had a beauty of a goal shorthanded after Alex Ovechkin played it poorly.  Tyler Ennis fed the puck to Drew Stafford in the 3rd for the 5th goal of the night.  These Sabres are looking like a team fit for playoffs!

The Florida Panthers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in a shootout.  Wojtek Wolski scored the only goal in the shootout for the win.  Florida leads their Southeast Division.
The Boston Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2.  Tampa Bay's only 2 goals came from Steven Stamkos.  Stamkos's 54th and 55th goals of the year!  Stamkos has scored the most goals of any player this season in the NHL!  Tampa sits 11th in the east with 77 points.
The top team in the east the New York Rangers beat the Minnesota wild 3-2.  Minnesota sits 13th in the west with 72 points and are officially out of the playoffs.  The New York Rangers hang on to top spot with a 3 point lead.
The top team in the west and perhaps the 2nd most heated game of the night was a 3-0 win for the St. Louis Blues.  St. Louis net minder Brain Elliott made 24 saves for his 3rd consecutive shutout and took over the league lead with 9 shutouts this year alone!  Elliott hasn't let a goal get past him in 186 minutes and 33 seconds, a franchise record!  The St. Louis goaltenders (including Jarolsav Halak) tie the modern record for most shutouts in a season with 15!  With 5 games remaining maybe they will beat the record?!  Another fun fact about this game is that Jamie Langenbrunner scored the opening goal for St. Louis and it was Langenbrunner 1,100th career game!  With this win St. Louis has a 4 point lead in the west and Nashville needs just one point to secure a playoff spot.

Tonight's line up is short and sweet:
New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets at 4:00
Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets at 4:30
Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames at 6:30
Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers at 6:30
Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks at 7:00
and finally San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks at 7:00

This is the 4th and final meeting between the Vancouver Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche.  The scores have been 6-0 Vancouver, 3-2 Vancouver in a S/O with Mason Raymond scoring the winning goal and 3-2 Vancouver in OT with Chris Higgins scoring the tying goal and the OT goal!  Perhaps the best moment was Kevin Bieksa blocking a goal and then scoring the tying goal!  Check it out below!

Sixteen teams make it into the playoffs.  Eight teams from each conference.  At least one team from all 3 divisions within the conferences make it and the next 5 spots is a fight to get in.  A team can go from 1st in their division and 3rd in the conference to 9th in the conference and out in a playoff spot and back in a matter of 24 hours depending on other teams wins and losses.  It gets heated.  For example in 2010 the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup.  The following season the Blackhawks played a fine season but didn't make the playoffs or so they thought?  The Blackhawks were literally packing up their stalls in their locker room when the got word they would be heading to the playoffs to face the Vancouver Canucks in the first round because Minnesota had just beat Dallas in their last game of the season.  The twist on this was that Dallas was the stronger team and was expected to win.  A win for Dallas meant that they would be heading to the playoffs.  Minnesota who was already out of the running for the playoffs  came in a played a tough game and won.  WIth the Minnesota win it meant the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars were out of the playoffs and the Chicago Blackhawks were in.  Chicago got in based on a loss and what a first round series it ended up being.  The series end in Vancouver winning the 1st 3 games, Chicago winning the next 3 and game 7 went in overtime.  Check it out: Stakes, Passion, Fear and Victory!

So far this season 6 teams have secured spots in the playoffs.  The New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings have all secured a spot but haven't clinched their divisions.  The Vancouver Canucks have clinched the Northwest Division for the 4th consecutive year and with that comes a playoff spot.  Ten spots remain, 5 in each conference.  With most teams only having 6 or 7 games to go every 2 points from a win counts!

Like I say only 6 teams (the ones bolded above) have a playoff spot.  Tomorrow the top 8 could look completely different.  Here is a quick breakdown of yesterday's games:

The Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings 1-0.  The only goal scored was by #27 Manny Malhotra early in the 1st period.  Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo stopped all 38 shots for his 4th shut out of the year and his 59th career shutout.  Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick stopped 24 of 25 shots.  This win puts Vancouver only 2 points behind league leader the St. Louis Blues.  If the Blues lose tonight to the Nashville Predators and Vancouver wins tomorrow night against the Colorado Avalanche the teams would be tied!  Check out Malhotra's 7th goal of the year below! 

Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning helped his team win last night!  Stamkos scored the 2nd goal of the night with only 0.6 left on the clock for his 53rd goal this year!  Stamkos is one of the strongest players in the NHL.  Tampa Bay is 11th in the east with 77 points but with this win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa denied Philly any points to help Philly clinch their division even though they are heading to the playoffs.  Stamkos with his 53 goals this season is 1st in the goals race but second in the points race with 88 points total and 9 points behind league leader Evgeni Malkin.

The Detroit Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-2.  Red Wing Tomas Holmstrom scored twice but Henrik Zetterberg assisted 4 of the goals.  Todd Bertuzzi assisted 3 goals.  Detroit had a 7-0 lead with the 7th goal being scored by Pavel Datsyuk early in the 3rd period but 19 seconds later Columbus's Mark Letestu scored followed by Columbus Captain Rick Nash 9 minutes later.
The Ottawa Senators threw cold water on the Winnipeg Jets hopes of a playoff spot.  Ottawa won 6-4.  Winnipeg has 78 points and is in 10th place.  Jason Spezza, #19 of the Senators probably had the prettiest play yesterday to help Kyle Turris score the 3rd Ottawa goal of the night.  Check it out:

The Calgary Flames beat the Dallas Stars 5-4.  Dallas did have the lead 2-1 with Jamie Benn scoring his 2nd goal of the night with only 44 seconds gone in the 2nd period.  Then Calgary scored 4 goals in 10 minutes!  With this win Calgary is in 11th place with 85 points but only 2 points behind Dallas who has 87 points and in 7th place.  It is anybody's game.
The San Jose Sharks beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-1.  Colorado's lone goal came from former Canuck Shane O'Brien.  Joe Pavelski scored twice for San Jose.  Colorado is 10th in the west with 86 points but having played the most games at 78.  That means they have to win their next 4 games and hope Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles or Calgary tank to get a spot.

Tonight's line up consists of 8 games:
Carolina and Toronto at 4:00 
Chicago and New Jersey at 4:00
New York Islanders and Pittsburgh at 4:00
Buffalo and Washington at 4:00
Florida and Montreal at 4:30
Tampa Bay and Boston at 4:30
Nashville and St. Louis at 5:00
New York Rangers and Minnesota at 5:00
The 2 highest stake games would be between the St. Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators because if the Preds win they move within 5 points of clinching their division (which happens to be the Central Division and same as St. Louis) and Vancouver could tie St. Louis as league leader with a win against Colorado on Wednesday night.  Then you have the game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Washington Capitals.  Both team have 84 points, played 76 games but Washington has 1 more win with 38 while Buffalo has 37.  A win for Buffalo would mean 2 points and 8th place in the east. 

And don't forget to come to Jack Poole Plaza April 1st for Canucks Autism Network's Family Festival.  Join in on an Awareness Walk through downtown Vancouver, face painting and VERA's burgers!  From 10:00am till 3:00pm.  Enjoy X

There were 7 games played in the NHL last night.  As the regular season comes to an end teams are claiming a spot in the playoffs.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are one of them.  Yesterday the PENS beat the New Jersey Devils 5-2.  The Pens success comes from many different players but 2 players consistently on the scoring chart are #71 Evgeni Malkin and #87 Sidney Crosby.  In yesterday's win all 5 scorers for Pittsburgh also picked up a point for an assist.  The PENS goals came from Chris Kunitz, Jordan Staal, Pascal Dupuis, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.  What makes Sid the Kid and Malkin stand out?  Crosby in only 15 games played this year has collected 25 points!  Four goals and 21 assists.  Malkin on the other hand has blown the scoring race wide open with 97 points!  Malkin has 46 goals and 51 assists!  Ten points more then 2nd place Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Pittsburgh has secured a playoff spot in the east and with this win and now has 100 points!

The Edmonton Oilers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3.  The 14th and 15th place teams in the league battled it out.  Columbus actually had the lead 2-1 until Edmonton scored 4 goals in less then 8 minutes in the 2nd period. With a goal by each team in the 3rd it was a 6-3 final. Both teams are out of the playoff race but that doesn't mean players take it easy as players from both teams still fight every night for a job next year!
The Boston Bruins beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2.  Bruin Captain Zedno Chara opened up the scoring in the 2nd period after a scoreless 1st period.  Anaheim is another team not making the playoffs, Boston on the other hand is 1st in their Northeast Division but hasn't officially clinched a playoff spot.
The only game to end in a S/O last night was between the New York Islanders and the Florida Panthers.  The game ended in a 2-2 tie.  A scoreless OT and the only goal in the S/O came from Islander Frans Nielsen.  Florida hasn't clinched a playoff spot yet but is 1st in their Southeast Division.  The Islanders are 14th and out of the running.

The Washington Capitals shut the door on the MInnesota Wild 3-0.  It took 30 minutes for the 1st goal to be scored by the Caps Jason Chimera.  Mathieu Perreault scored the 2nd goal assisted by good lookin Troy Brouwer and Russian Hotshot Alex Ovechkin.  After this win Washington is clinging onto the 8th place in the east with 84 points and 38 wins but the Buffalo Sabres are hot on their heels also with 84 points but only 37 wins.  Both teams have 6 games remaining including Tuesday's matchup against each other.

The Nashville Predators stomped on the 2010 Stanley Cup Champs the Chicago Blackhawks 6-1!  Six different Preds scored including Matt Halischuk, Andrei Kostitsyn, Patric Hornqvist and Francis Boullion for the 4-0 lead early in the 3rd period.  Blackhawk Viktor Stalberg scored to eliminate the shutout but Preds Shea Weber and Mike Fisher scored for the 6-1 final.  Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne stopped 24 of 25 shots and picked up an assist on the last goal by Mike Fisher.  There you go, a goalie who can stop goals and also help score goals.  Nashville, which is a force to be reckoned with this year is now 4th in the west with 96 points.  Chicago is 6th with 92 points and both teams will likely make the playoffs.

The #1 team in the league the St. Louis Blues beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0! The Blues are out to win.  The Blues were the 1st team to clinch a playoff spot and now have 103 points with 6 games remaining.  It was 0-0 after the 1st and 1-0 after the 2nd with the lone goal coming from Alex Pietrangelo.    Then in the 3rd David Backes, Patrik Berglund and Ryan Reaves all scored for the 4-0 win.  Brian Elliott stopped all 20 shots.  Eliiott has played 35 games this season, won 22 of them and a whopping 8 have been shutouts!  Elliott has also only let in 52 goals and kept 888 out!  The Blues take on the Predators Tuesday and this will to a great game.  Both teams are in the uber strong Central Division and Nashville is 2nd in the division with 96 points.  A win for Nashville in regulation means 2 points closer to 1st in the west.

Tonight's line up includes only 6 games:
Tampa Bay and Philadelphia at 4:30
Columbus and Detroit at 4:30
Ottawa and Winnipeg at 5:30
Dallas and Calgary at 6:00
Los Angeles and Vancouver at 7:00
Colorado and San Jose at 7:30  Enjoy X

Alright, lets breakdown a week in hockey!  It has been a while since I have been able to get a post up.  Working on the next 4 episodes of "Hockey Talk with Courtney" and I am also proud to say that I will be volunteering at the Canucks Autism Network Family Festival being held April 1st at Jack Poole Plaza here in Vancouver.  Come down from 10:00-3:00 pm for an awareness walk, face painting, VERA's burgers and surprise guests!

After this week there are now 5 teams that have clinched a playoff spot.  The New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis BLues and the Vancouver Canucks.  All of these teams will be going to the playoffs but the Canucks are the only team that has clinched their Northwest Division.  With Calgary's lose to Dallas yesterday Vancouver got the top spot and solidified it even more with an OT win over the Colorado Avalanche last night!

It has been an interesting week for the Vancouver Canucks.  They started a 4 game road trip after a win last Saturday at home in Vancouver against the Columbus Blue Jackets.  The most beautiful part of that game would have been Alex Edler's goal at 12:38 in the 2nd period.  It is what they call "Coast to Coast" meaning skating from one end of the rink to the other.  Edler got past all 5 Blue Jackets and potted it in the net with a great goal to watch.  You can check out Edler's goal below!

The Canucks picked up 5 of a possible 8 points on the trip.  They lost to the Minnesota Wild 2-0.  Cory Schneider stopped 32 of 33 shots and Minnesota netted an empty netter with 3 seconds left in the 3rd period.  Vancouver lost to Chicago in OT.  Jannik Hansen scored the opening goal of the game 27 seconds into the 1st period.  This game was one to watch after Daniel Sedin left the game following an elbow to the mouth by Duncan Keith.  In Keith's defense D. Sedin hit him just earlier but Keith's hit was dirty.  D. Sedin flew back to Vancouver the following morning and Keith got a 5 game suspension.  Mason Raymond who was a scratch in the game against Minnesota took the message and scored the opening goal against Dallas on thursday.  Kevin Bieksa scored the 2nd goal in the 2-1 finish.  Finally, last night's game vs the Colorado Avalanche featured 3 great goals by the Canucks.  The Avalanche had a 2-0 lead well into the 2nd period.  Then Mason Raymond scored to get Vancouver on the board only to be followed by Chris Higgins 14th goal of the season 1:35 seconds later.  Tie 2-2.  Into OT and Higgins potted his 15th goal of the year.  Vancouver wins 3-2.  Watch all 3 Vancouver goals below!

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Ottawa Senators 8-4 last night.  It was the first regulation loss for Pittsbrugh since a 6-2 lost to the Buffalo Sabers February 19th.  The Pens were on an eleven game winning streak until they lost to the Flyers March 18th in OT.  Scott Hartnell scored for the Flyers with 1 second left in OT.  Pittsburgh came back to win their next 2 games 8-4 against the JETS and 5-1 against the Predators.  Then last night the tables turned in a 8-4 loss to Ottawa.  In all of this Sidney Crosby made his 2nd comeback this year.  Crosby returned to the line up March 15th vs the New York Rangers.  SInce his return, Crosby  has picked up 11 points in six games  One goal and ten assists!  Wow!  Crosby does it like no other!  Watch Crosby pass to Matt Cooke last night.

Tonight's line up looks like this:
Edmonton vs Columbus at 12:00
Minnesota vs Washington at 2:00
NY Islanders vs Florida at 2:00
New Jersey vs Pittsburgh at 4:00
Nashville vs Chicago at 4:30 
Boston vs Anaheim at 5:00
St. Louis vs Phoenix at 6:00  Enjoy!  X

There were only 8 games played in the NHL last night, here is a quick breakdown:

The New Jersey Devils beat the Colorado Avalanche 1-0.  It was a scoreless 1st, 2nd and 3rd period.  After a pointless OT it was onto the shootout.  It only took 2 shooters from each team before it ended.  Both #17 Kovalchuk and #9 Parise scored for the Devils.  Both Milan Hejduk and Peter Mueller missed for Colorado.  It is funny to think Colorado still gets a point for never scoring a goal last night!  After this win New Jersey is still 6th in the east with 87 points, while Colorado has broken the 4 way tie in the west and is in 8th place with 81 points.

The Philadelphia Flyers beat the New York Islanders 3-2.  Philly had a 3-0 lead for over 53 minutes then the Islanders scored 2 goals in 35 seconds.  Former Canuck Michael Grabner scored the 1st goal for the Islanders and hotshot John Tavares scored the 2nd.  Philly holds the 5th spot in the east with 89 points and the Islanders are 15th in the east with 67 points.

Sidney Crosby got to do something he hadn't done since December 5th 2011, sit on the bench and play with his team during a game!  It was a 5-2 final with Matt Cooke scoring twice, Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis scoring the other 3 goals.  Crosby played 16:00 minutes last night and assisted 2 goals.  Every team in the east better watch out now.  Sid the Kid, the Next One or whatever you want to call him is back!  This matchup between the teams also meant brothers Marc Staal of the Rangers and Jordan Staal of the Penguins played against each other.  Staal Mom may be more proud of Jordan who registered a point, Marc only registered a penalty last night.  Pittsburgh is on a wild 10 game winning streak now sitting only 4 points behind Division leader the New York Rangers with 91 points.  The Rangers are top in the east with 95 points.

The #1 team in the west the St. Louis Blues had the door shut on them 2-0 by the Carolina Hurricane.  It was a scoreless 1st and 2nd period then Carolina scored 2 goals in the 3rd.  Carolina's Captain is 3rd Staal brother Eric.  St. Louis still have 98 points and 6 more then 2nd place Vancouver.  Carolina is 13th in the east with 69 points.
The Toronto Maple Leafs snapped a 5 game losing streak by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1.  Toronto was only 26 seconds away from a shutout when Lightning Martin St. Louis scored his 23rd goal of the year.  Both teams are still out of playoffs spots right now.  Tampa Bay is 11th with 71 points, Toronto 12th with 70 points.
The Boston Bruins lost to the Florida Panthers 6-2.  Six different Panthers scored goals including the opening goal by former Canucks Mikael Samuelsson.  Florida is 3rd in the east with 81 points and Boston is still 2nd with 83 points but Boston is on a 4 game losing streak and Florida is on a 3 game winning streak.

The Calgary Flames beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-1.  Four different Flames scored including Captain Jarome Iginla.  These are 2 teams fighting for the 8th place in the west. Calgary is 10th with 80 points while Phoenix is 7th with 81 points.  It is a fight every night one of these teams steps on the ice.

The San Jose Sharks beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 in a S/O.  Nashville had the lead after Patric Hornqvist scored 13:18 into the 1st period but San Jose Captain Joe Thornton scored 55 seconds into the 3rd period.  The only goal in the S/O was scored by Ryane Clowe.  San Jose has been pumped out of a playoff spot into 9th with 80 points and Nashville is 5th with 90 points.

Tonight's line up only features 5 games:
Montreal vs Ottawa at 4:00 pm
Washington vs Winnipeg at 5:30 pm
Chicago vs Dallas at 5:30 pm
Calgary vs Edmonton at 6:30 pm
Los Angeles vs Anaheim at 7:00 pm

Women's Only Fantasy Hockey Pool Draft Results:
1st Juliet with 692 points
2nd Sam 686 points
3rd Lexine with 684 points
4th Sasha with 684 points
5th Mary with 672 points
6th Liz B with 666 points
7th Stacey with 659 points
8th Joanne P with 659 points
9th Josie with 659 points
10th Roz with 659 points 
11th Sharon with 657 points
12th France with 646 points
13th Bonnie with 639 points
14th Tanya with 636 points
15th Amy with 631 points
16th Vanessa with 626 points
17th Amanda with 624 points
18th Gina with 620 points
19th Jean with 619 points
20th Courtney with 619 points
21st Teagan with 617 points
22nd Michelle with 613 points
23rd Susan with 607 points
24th Candice with 595 points
25th Jill with 593 points
26th Catrina with 575 points
27th Amie with 559 points
and finally Joanne in 28th place and 555 points!  Enjoy X

You want excitement?  The last home stretch here of the NHL season is starting to heat up.  Here are the standings after last night:

The Buffalo Sabers lost to the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 in a S/O.  It was back and for scoring for the teams.  The 1st period ended 2-2.  The 2nd period 3-3 and the 3rd period 4-4.  In the third period former Canuck Alex Sulzer who was involved in the Cody Hodgson trade at the Trade Deadline scored his 1st goal as a Saber.  The tying goal was scored by Colorado's Jamie Mcginn with 2 seconds left in the 3rd period!  The winning goal was scored by Colorado's Peter Mueller.  One of the only reasons the Sabers made it to the shootout would have been because of their goal tender Ryan Miller.  MIller stopped 38 of 42 shot on goal whereas Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov only stopped 20 of 24.

Perhaps the most interesting goal celebration of the night was one between Montreal Canadien Erik Cole and the ref.  The Montreal Canadiens were playing the Ottawa Senators.  The  final score was 3-2 in a S/O.  Erik Cole scored the opening goal 13:45 into the 1st period and what did Cole decide to do after scoring?  High five the ref?!  It was a short lived lead because Ottawa's Colin Greening scored 26 seconds later.   It was a no scoring 2nd period and in the 3rd David Desharnais scored for Montreal 24 seconds in.  Ottawa hot shot Erik Karlsson scored to tie it up.  Desharnais scored the only goal in the S/O and Montreal is now in a 3 way tie for 13th place in the east.  Check out Cole's High Five below!

The Vancouver Canucks lost to the Phoenix Coyotes 5-4.  Four different Canucks scored and five different Coyotes scored.  It was a back and forth game until Coyote Antoine Vermette scored the eventual game winner early in the 3rd period.  Phoenix goal tender Mike Smith made a whooping 39 saves!
The Edmonton Oilers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-0.  Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked up 2 points.  One for a goal, one for an assist.  
The Anaheim Duck beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-0.  It was a scoreless 1st period.  Then the Finnish Flash Teemu Selanne scored followed by Kyle Palmieri followed by Bobby Ryan.  3-0 to end the 2nd.  Kyle Palmieri scored his 2nd goal of the night early in the 3rd for a 4-0 final.

The Winnipeg Jets beat the Dallas Stars 5-2.  Winnipeg had a 5-0 lead at one point in time.  Nik Antropov scored in the 1st period.  Then in the second Evander Kane, Eric Fehr, Andrew Ladd and Andrew Ladd again all scored for Winnipeg in less then 15 minutes.  Loui Eriksson scored 1 goal for Dallas 17 second after the 2nd Ladd goal and the 2nd period ended 5-1.  In the 3rd period Loui Eriksson scored one more time for a 5-2 final.

Tonight's line up has 8 games:
Colorado vs New Jersey at 4:00 pm
Philadelphia vs New York Islanders at 4:00 pm
Pittsburgh vs New York Rangers at 4:00pm (and the return of Sidney Crosby!)
St. Louis vs Carolina at 4:00 pm
Toronto vs Tampa Bay at 4:30 pm
Boston vs Florida at 4:30 pm
Phoenix vs Calgary at 6:00 pm
Nashville vs San Jose at 7:30 pm

Nine games played in the NHL last night with some surprising results.  Here is a quick breakdown:

The Philadelphia Flyers shut the door on the New Jersey Devils.  Flyer goalie Ilya Bryzgalov made 17 saves. The shutout for Ilya was his 3rd consecutive and tied a team record!  Philly D-Man Braydon Coburn picked up two assists in the victory.  Philly is 5th in the east with 87 points but 3rd in the ultra skilled Atlantic Division.  New Jersey is 6th in the east with 85 points and 4th in the Atlantic Division.

The other game to end in a shutout last night was between the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild 1-0.  Both teams took 25 shots on net.  Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen made all 25 saves and Minnesota goalie Matt Hackett made 24 saves.  The one that slipped by didn't come in the 1st period or the 2nd period.  It was early in the 3rd period by Dallas hot shot Jamie Benn.  That makes it 21 goals this season for the Victoria native.  Jamie's older brother Jordie was called up to the team but didn't play.  Dallas sits in 3rd place in the west and 1st in their Pacific Division.  Minnesota is 13th place with 68 points and 10 points behind the log jam that is the tie for 8th place in the west.

The New York Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricane 4-2.  New York held the lead the entire game and Carolina was never able to catch up.  With this win New York opens up their lead in the eastern standings to 95 points.  Six more points then Pittsburgh with 89.  Carolina neart the bottom of the pile at unlucky #13 with 67 points.  This game also put brothers against each other.  Eric Staal is Captain of the Hurricane and Marc Staal is an Alternate Captain for the Rangers.

The Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders 5-4 in a shootout.  If they handed out a hat trick for shootout goals then both John Tavares and Washington's Alex Ovechkin would have recorded them.  John Tavares scores 2 goals in the 2nd period, Ovechkin scored 1 goal with 53 seconds left in the 2nd.  Then after a Dmitry Orlov goal early in the 3rd to bring Washington within one goal Ovechkin scored again 1/2 through the 3rd to end it 4-4.  A scoreless OT and onto the shootout.  Tavares and Ovechkin were both the 2nd round shooters and both scored but it was Washington's Matt Hendricks who potted the winner.  After this win Washington sits in 8th place in the east and the Islanders are 14th with 67

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Boston Bruins 6-1!  By the end of the 1st period Tampa Bay had a 4-0 lead.  The oddest part of the 1st period was Steven Stamkos, a leader in points this season hadn't scored a  goal or registered a single point.  Then into the 2nd period Stamkos found the back of the net and potted his 49th goal of the season! Stamkos has been leading the goals race all season but was always behind Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins in points overall.  That was it for the 2nd period.  Start if the 3rd Boston's Jordan Caron got his team on the board 5-1.  Then in true Superstar fashion Stamkos scored his 50th goal of the season and was officially at the top of the points race.  Tied with Malkin having 84 points but scoring more goals so therefore getting the top spot.  Tampa is 11th in the east with 71 points and 7 points behind Washington.  Boston  is on a 3 game losing streak but still in 2nd place, top spot in the Northeast Division with 83 points.  Check out Stamkos's 50th goal below!

The Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2.  Florida is leading their Southeast Division and 3rd in the east with 79 points, while Toronto is 12th in the east with 68 points.
The Los Angeles Kings beat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2.  LA held the lead the entire game after scoring 2 goals in the 1st period and Detroit never caught up.  With this win LA is tied for 8th place with 78 points and Detroit is 4th in the west with 91 points.
The Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 in overtime.  Logan Couture scored the 2 goals for San Jose but it was Calgary's Matt Stajan who scored the winning goal in OT.  After this win Calgary is in the 4 way logjam as some have started to call it.  San Jose, Calgary, Los Angeles and Colorado all have 78 points and are all tied for 8th place in the west.  Check out Stajan's goal below.

The #1 team in the NHL was beat last night.  The Chicago Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in a S/O.  St. Louis fan favorite netminder Jaroslav Halak made an amazing 43 saves!  Chicago netminder Ray Emery was pulled in the 1st period after letting in 3 goals on 6 shots.  Enter Cory Crawford who stopped 10 shots.  Chicago's Andrew Brunette scored the 1st goal in the 1st period but by the time the period ended St. Louis had scored 3 goals to end it 3-1.  Slowly but surely Chicago came back to tie it.  A scorless OT and into the S/O.  The only goal scored in the shootout was by Chicago hotshot #88 Patrick Kane!  With only the one point collected for St. Louis they still have 98 points and 6 point lead over the Vancouver Canucks. Chicago is in 6th place in the west with 84 points.

Tonight's line up is a bit shorter with only 6 games being played:
Colorado vs Buffalo 4:30 pm
Ottawa vs Montreal 4:30 pm
Dallas vs Winnipeg 5:30 pm
Columbus vs Edmonton 7:00 pm
Phoenix vs Vancouver 7:00 pm
Detroit vs Anaheim 7:00 pm
Thursday night is the night we should all watch the Pittsburgh Penguins vs the New York Rangers because Sidney Crosby will be making his return to the line up!  At least if New York snaps the Penguins 9 game win streak we know who to blame: Sidney Crosby?!  Enjoy X

Out of the 4 games played last night, 3 ended in either an overtime or a shootout.  Teams are now fighting more then ever to collect points.

The Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadians 3-2 in overtime.  Montreal's Eric Cole scored the only goal in the 1st period.  Buffalo's Tyler Ennis scored the only goal in the second period to tie the game.  The 3rd period was a bit more exciting.  Tyler Ennis scored his 10th goal of the year early in the 3rd and Buffalo held the lead the entire period until Montreal's David Desharnais scored to tie to up with only 5 seconds left in regulation.  Then enter Tyler Myers for Buffalo who scored the winning goal 2:01 into OT.  With this single point Montreal picks up they are still in 15th place in the east with 65 points and 11 out of a playoff spot.  Buffalo however has slowly but steadily moved into 9th place in the east and only 2 points out of 8th place in the east.

The Colorado Avalanche beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in overtime.  Anaheim's handsome Teemu Selanne tied up the game at the end of the 3rd period.  With 2 minutes gone in OT Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog scored his 19th of the year to end it.
The Nashville Predators beat the Phoenix Coyotes 5-4 in a shootout.  Nashville had the lead 1-0 after the 1st period.  Nashville still had the lead 3-2 after the 2nd period.  In the 3rd period former Canuck and current Coyote Raffi Torres tied up the with 5 minutes remaining.  Nothing in OT and onto the S/O.  The only successful goal in the S/O was by Predator Andrei Kostitsyn.
The only game to end last night in regulation was the one between the Edmonton Oilers and the San Jose Sharks.  San Jose always held the lead.  Edmonton was always scoring the tying goal until the 3rd period when San Jose scored to make it 3-2 and Edmonton couldn't get the tying goal.  

The Pittsburgh Penguins are on a 9 game winning streak and are only 4 points behind the eastern leading New York Rangers.  In addition, both teams are in the fiercely strong Atlantic Division.  Rangers, Penguins, Flyers and Devils are all in the top 6 in the east.
The St. Louis Blues are on a 5 games win streak.  Five points above the Vancouver Canucks and 6 points in front of next in line for the Central Division top spot the Detroit Red Wings.  Like the Atlantic Division the Central Division in the west is fierce.  St. Louis, Detroit, Nashville and Chicago are all in that division and in the top 6!

The Dallas Stars have recalled D-Man Jordie Benn!  Benn will be playing alongside Kid brother and Dallas hot shot Jamie Benn!  Jordie will wear #58.  Keep an eye on this player.  Next year don't be surprised if we see another set of brothers playing on the same permanent roster.  The best part is the brothers are Victoria BC boys! 

Jordie did register his 1st NHL point in his 1st NHL game and was only the 10th player in Stars history to do it.  Jordie picked up the assist while brother Jamie picked up the other assist on the same goal!
Jamie and Jordie are the 3rd set of brothers to play on the Stars together.

Nine games are being played in the NHL tonight:
New Jersey and Philadelphia at 4:00 pm
Washington and NY Islanders at 4:00 pm
Carolina and NY Rangers at 4:30 pm
Boston and Tampa Bay at 4:30 pm
Toronto and Florida at 4:30 pm
Dallas and Minnesota at 5:00 pm
St. Louis and Chicago at 5:30 pm
San Jose and Calgary at 6:30
Detroit and Los Angeles at 7:30 pm  Enjoy X