With just four days left in the regular season, we have eight teams mathematically alive for four playoff spots. For you non-math majors, four of the eight will be sitting out the second season come Sunday night. Let’s ignore the traditional point system and decide who should lose these races.
This will be about franchise and league preservation, about saving jobs and about getting some people fired.
We are strong enough to put aside our personal feelings and write that the New York Rangers should miss the playoffs this spring. To their fans, the Blueshirts will lose to whomever in the opening round because they still lack the requisite heart and grit, so you might as well get their funeral out of the way now and not in three weeks.
But our hope is that a 9th-place finish will be enough to maybe, just maybe, force Cablevision to dismiss general manager Glen Sather. His free agent signings and trades continue to waste Henrik Lundqvist’s early prime. This roster needs an overhaul, and Sather should not get the opportunity to oversee it.
Even more, no Rangers in the Eastern Conference bracket would likely mean the Panthers snuck in, which would only be good news for the organization and the NHL. Ranger fans will sellout the Garden next season whether or not their team makes the Final 16, but another year without the postseason (and Jay Bouwmeester’s likely departure) would push the Panthers back to the periphery in south Florida.
For purely sadistic reasons, we’d like to see the Canadiens finish their centennial season in a La-Z-Boy next to the Rangers, but it is just not possible that Florida AND Buffalo can find their way into the playoffs.
Out West, let’s keep Minnesota and St. Louis on the outside looking in.
As we wrote two weeks ago, the Wild need a new head coach and GM, but probably would not get either following another postseason appearance. Doug Risebrough is the real culprit here, allowing this team to regress so far by losing prominent players in free agency and not drafting well enough to replace them from within. You could make the argument that the Wild are more of an expansion team today than they were five years ago.
The Blues are getting the boot because we believe more in the St. Louis market than the Nashville one. The Scottrade Center has been 88% full this year. Those folks aren’t going anywhere. And another high draft pick would look nice alongside T.J. Oshie, Patrick Berglund and Erik Johnson.
And while Nashville could use the talent of a lottery pick, the organization needs the playoffs more. It cannot afford a dormant spring as it continues to tread water.
So apologies to those that we are keeping out of the playoffs. But at least some of you will get revenge by making the real ones.
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The Shootout…Here’s hoping the Ottawa Senators have finally found the right head coach for their roster. AHL call-up Cory Clouston is the fourth bench boss since the team’s run to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals. The Sens have bought whatever Clouston is selling, compiling a 19-10-3 record since he replaced Craig Hartsburg, which is why owner Eugene Melnyk reward Clouston with a two-year contract Tuesday.
How do you know your franchise is abysmal? When the commissioner issues a press release to congratulate you for getting your building “green” status. The Atlanta Thrashers received such a note Monday from Gary Bettman after Phillips Arena earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. We’re all for saving the environment, and it is commendable that Phillips Arena is the first “green” arena in the country, but shouldn’t we be discussing more important things this time of year – like a playoff spot, Don Waddell?
So Ron Wilson loses his job in San Jose mainly because his teams never came close to a Stanley Cup and that makes him the choice to lead Team USA in the Vancouver Olympics this winter? Wilson will do an OK job, especially since the rebuilding Maple Leafs will keep his coaching skills in good condition, but at least John Tortorella has won a championship.
As always, please direct all comments, questions, complaints to boguschhockey@gmail.com
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