Discussion: Road to the 2014 Playoffs (23 Consecutive Playoff Appearances!)

[Kronwalled55]

It's that time of the year again.

Standings as of March 9th, 2014

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Remaining schedule

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I'll try to keep the OP updated.

Click to read more...

 

[Kronwalled55]

Schedule does not look nice whatsoever, but there is definitely winnable matchups in there.

I've been saying, just worry about TB, TOR, and MTL. Just got to be in the top 3. No need to worry about the Metro division right now.

 

[SoupNazi]

Tuesday is a HUGE must-win for us.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Just about every game is a must win for us, now.

 

[joe89]

The lineup we're icing is that of a bubble playoff team so that's what I expect us to play like. We need to win maybe 10 of our last 18 games plus some extra points. Could also come down to simply winning the right games. Take it game by game.

 

[waltdetroit]

Does anyone think that 90 pts will get us into the playoffs? is 95 pts needed?

 

[Kronwalled55]

Does anyone think that 90 pts will get us into the playoffs? is 95 pts needed?

I think 93 will be the magic number. I look at Philly at 73 points, and I think getting 20 out of the possible 36 will be enough (10-8-0)

Anything less than that is relying on the competition a bit too much IMO.

 

[sully6one]

I just spent $50 on Game Center and another $130 for access to wifi and on top of that I'll be spending $50 a month just to watch them play while I'm stuck here at lackland, so they Better make it worth it

 

[aar000n]

I say win 15 out of 18 games. We should be 2-3 and playing Toronto or Montreal in the first round.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

I say win 15 out of 18 games. We should be 2-3 and playing Toronto or Montreal in the first round.

Lol I wish it were that easy.

IMO we need to stay afloat for the time being. Stay on that 8/9/10 bubble at worst. Datsyuk could be back with 10 games remaining and Helm could be back sooner. They're going to win some and lose some in the meantime, but so are the other bubble teams. We get to play a lot of the teams were directly competing against, so they really need to dig in and claw out some 2pt games. They could also use some help. Tampa continuing to struggle would be great as would Toronto struggling on their West coast trip.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

Call it a hunch, but I just have a feeling we're going to miss the playoffs. But just barely.

 

[Electric Thunder]

@Columbus
Edmonton
@Chicago
Toronto
Pittsburgh
@Minnesota
Minnesota
@Columbus
Montreal
@Toronto
Tampa Bay
Boston
Buffalo
@Montreal
@Buffalo
@Pittsburgh
Carolina
@St. Louis

I can see us possibly winning the bolded games. Throw in 3 OTL and that gives us a total of 88 points. Luckily I've learned over the past few seasons that this team is impossible to peg, so hopefully they prove me wrong and I spend the next 18 games eating tons of crow.

 

[Avery Rule]

I just spent $50 on Game Center and another $130 for access to wifi and on top of that I'll be spending $50 a month just to watch them play while I'm stuck here at lackland, so they Better make it worth it

I will be out there end of June

 

[PullHard]

Winning our games against Columbus, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Montreal would be huge. Even just getting 4 points while giving Columbus 0 points in our 2 remaining games could go a loooong way for our chances.

 

[PullHard]

Tampa only got one point tonight. Better than two.

#ThankYouBasedVrbata

 

[Henkka]

We are a bit lucky with those back-to-back games.

There's four back-to-backs left, but:

1st meeting against Minnesota and we play the day before against Minnesota. So there no advantage or disadvantage for either teams in this case.

2nd back-to-backs are against Toronto and TBL. Both teams play a game before they face us, so Toronto should be exhausted, when we meet them first. And when we should be exhausted against Tampa, they have also played against Buffalo, so this later game goes equal.

3rd back-to-backs are against BUF and MTL. Same in here, both play a day before before they face us.

The final 4th back-to-back is the hardest one, BUF and PIT. Pittsburgh is rested for many days before they face us after our Buffalo-game. But we have to hope that they aren't so motivated on that point, it will be their 3rd last game of the regular season and their spot in the standings could be already secured.

Our 2nd last game is against Carolina, and they are having a back-to-back, when we are rested.

Our last game is against the Blues and they could also be 50% interested in that game. Pretty sure their regular season spot is already secured and even when they are facing the Red Wings, it will be a meaningless non-conference game for them.

Imo, our schedule is a little bit favourable. I think our main rivals will have tougher schedule.

 

[RedWingzz]

no Datsyuk and Z= no playoffs. We are not good enough without both of our superstars, plain and simple.

 

[ashenhigh]

Unless we take the 3rd spot in the division, we are stuck playing BOS or PIT in round 1. Yikes.

 

[aar000n]

I am 50/50 on this night. While teams ahead got points teams below did not get any points. Toronto is probably gonna win and Tampa got a point

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Toronto is on a 3-game winning streak.

The last time we won 3 games in a row: December 1st.

The Leafs have had 4 3+ game win streaks in that span.
The Blue Jackets have had 5.
The Canadiens have had 2.
The Lightning have had 2.

Hard to catch up to teams when they string multiple wins together and you don't.

 

[Henkka]

Unless we take the 3rd spot in the division, we are stuck playing BOS or PIT in round 1. Yikes.

Pittsburgh won't impress me at all at the moment. Especially when that nerve goalie turns to be bad with the playoff pressure.

 

[Henkka]

Toronto is on a 3-game winning streak.

The last time we won 3 games in a row: December 1st.

The Leafs have had 4 3+ game win streaks in that span.
The Blue Jackets have had 5.
The Canadiens have had 2.
The Lightning have had 2.

Hard to catch up to teams when they string multiple wins together and you don't.

We have no chance to catch the Division TOP3 anymore. It's a wild card position or no playoffs.

These two games left against Columbus are key games, they are also having a toughest schedule maybe of all teams on the playoff battle.

 

[Pavels Dog]

It's very, very important we stay afloat the next 7 games. I'd say no more than 3 losses in that span is acceptable if we want to keep our hopes alive. After those 7 games, we face Columbus, Montreal, Toronto and Tampa. 4 huge games. By that time, we hopefully have at least Weiss or Helm back. There's an outside chance Datsyuk is back but I wouldn't get my hopes up. If we don't go on a winning/losing streak the next 7 games, those 4 games will determine our fate to a large extent.

We have no chance to catch the Division TOP3 anymore. It's a wild card position or no playoffs.

These two games left against Columbus are key games, they are also having a toughest schedule maybe of all teams on the playoff battle.

With 2 games in hand on Montreal we are 6 points behind. All it takes is for them to lose their next game and for us to win 3 in a row and we're tied.

But like an earlier poster mentioned, us winning 3 in a row is like asking any other team to win 10 in a row. Not gonna happen.

 

[VM1138]

That schedule reassures me. We beat teams like Pittsburgh and Boston and other "good teams." We also have more to play for and they might be resting some of their big guns late in the season. The troublesome ones are against Montreal.

But they should be able to swing a .500+ record out of the remaining games. Let's hope that's good enough.

 

[VM1138]

Unless we take the 3rd spot in the division, we are stuck playing BOS or PIT in round 1. Yikes.

Neither team is as good as Chicago was last year, and we did all right against them. Everything hinges on finally having healthy players of course, but I'm not too worried about the top teams in the East, strangely enough.