Currently, the Bruins sit in 8th place in the Eastern Conference, preparing for an inevitable beatdown showdown with the Washington Capitals – should everything hold. The fact of the matter is this Boston team is in dire straits with Savard possibly on the season ending IR, and could seriously lose ground to one of the teams just points behind.

But the question begs to be asked – who? The three most logical in order would be the New York Rangers, Atlanta Thrashers, and Tampa Bay Lightning, none of which look like playoff teams as of right now. The Rangers might be the best on paper, but unfortunately that doesn’t do anything for you in the standings, and the turnstile system of defense in the back has never really translated well in the National Hockey League. Henrik Lundqvist is as good as it gets between the pipes, but he’s been hung out to dry more than summer laundry his entire career, and Slats has again failed to fix a major problem with this roster. Marian Gaborik is a big time scorer, but the rest of the team struggles to find nylon, and seem to score at an inverse relationship with the play of the defense and Lundqvist.

The Atlanta Thrashers were a possible dark horse even after trading Ilya Kovalchuk, but they seem dead to rights ever since Evander Kane broke his foot a few days ago and wound up on the season ending injured reserve. Only a point behind the Rangers and five behind Boston, they do have one thing going for them , as they still have a league leading seventeen games still to be played. Unfortunately, no part of me sees this team riding out Johan Hedberg into the postseason, and they don’t have enough scoring up front past Niclas Bergfors and Nik Antropov to compete.

A team that does have plenty of scoring right now is the Tampa Bay Lightning, whose Martin St. Louis/Steven Stamkos/Steve Downie line might be one of the best in the NHL right now. Past that, they have grizzled veteran Vincent Lecavalier, Ryan Malone, Alex Tanguay, and Teddy Purcel all playing major contributory roles. Unfortunately, they’re not the greatest defensive team in history and don’t get consistent enough efforts from Antero Nittymaki to be a real contender. Barring a major run, I don’t think Tampa Bay is ready this year.

It’s unfortunate, because by the looks of it Carolina seems to be without question one of the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference. They’re certainly better than any aforementioned team, and are currently 8-1-1 in their past ten games. The unfortunate part, however, lies in the fact that they were beyond brutal for 2/3rds of the season, and for some reason could never get it together on the ice. Even with a plethora of talent, the Hurricanes melancholic approach to games made them an easy out early on, and for some reason they seemed completely disinterested. The one player who has elevated his game during this incredible run is Manny Legace, the goaltender who took over for Cam Ward after his slew of injuries. Just last night, the depleted Hurricanes(from injuries and trades alike) took Washington into overtime at the Verizon Center, before Tomas Fleischmann scored the game winner. Carolina is one of the best eight teams in the conference, but remain eight points back with sixteen left, and barring a miracle will be watching the post-season from their televisions thanks to a horrendous start.

It’s about picking the lesser of evils here, which is unfortunate considering how many teams deserve a bid in the West(Detroit, St. Louis, Dallas, Calgary).

Guerin was pretty frank about his stance on headshots and the “gray area” that has developed because people are refusing to take extreme stances. Some people want cheap shots taken out, but they don’t want to pansify the game(channeling my inner Mike Milbury here). Others want to keep all hits in the game in order to continue bringing in audiences that watch hockey for the physical play, but are having trouble swallowing the fact that eventually, someone is going to get killed on the ice.

If a guy gets hurt like that with a shot to the head, there’s got to be something,” Guerin said. “Actions happen. Guys don’t mean to hurt each other, but they do. You got to pay a price for that.”

Savard suffered a Grade 2 concussion and doesn’t even remember the play, and the Bruins have virtually ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Guerin later added:

“We’re all under the same umbrella, whether the guy’s on my team and I’m sitting right next to him or he’s playing in California,” Guerin said. “It doesn’t matter. We’re all playing in the same league. We all want the same safety. We all want to be looked after the same way. I understand he (Cooke) is on my team but, hey, he’s in a tough spot.”

General Managers around the league recommended that headhunting hits like the one Cooke delivered to Savard be outlawed during their three day meetings in Boca Raton, but that hasn’t actually passed – yet. Some analysts believe Cooke might walk from this hit clean, even though Cooke is a repeat offender.
Repeat offender, as in, nine times he has forced training staffs to come on the ice after one of his hits. Call it how you see it.

(Hat-tip to Deadspin for the video)

Washington Capitals 4, Carolina Hurricanes 3

The old adage that a team must never take cellar dwellers lightly down the stretch continues to prove true for the 2010 season, and especially in Carolina’s case, as they continue to be a real thorn in the sides of Eastern Conference teams. Carolina took Washington into overtime on the shoulders of a stellar Manny Legace and Tuomo Ruutu, who had two points on the night. Jussi Jokinen’s game tying goal in the 2nd period moved the score to three all, and held all the way into overtime, before Tomas Fleischmann beat Legace via Eric Belanger’s helper. Said Fleischmann of his game winner, a day after being scratched by Bruce Boudreau: “Don’t sit me out again.” Simple, yet effective.

Buffalo Sabres 5, Dallas Stars 3

One way to virtually eliminate yourself from playoff contention is to take a goal lead early in the first period at 3-2, and then collapse for the next forty minutes. The fact that Dallas got to Ryan Miller early and often was startling, but the even bigger fact that this team showed no punch and no fight when they really needed two makes me regret picking the Stars as a fringe eighth seed. Marty Turco played well and stopped 38 of 42, but Tyler Myers was the real story here. The Calder candidate, who I wrote about in a comparison against Avalanche phenom Matt Duchene, had a goal and three assists, and probably catapulted himself over the Colorado winger with his performance. Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow of Dallas both had rough nights, with each ending at -3.

New Jersey Devils 6, New York Rangers 3

John Tortorella continues to baffle the entire National Hockey League, as he gave the hook to Henrik Lundqvist after Brian Rolston’s goal in the second period made it 5-3. There’s no way a person can argue Henrik had a hot hand tonight, but Alex Auld is not the answer, and Lundqvist was a victim of bad luck more than anything else – three deflections beat the Swede, including two off of New York Rangers skaters. Zach Parise scored his 31st goal of the year on the power play just seconds before Brandon Prust of the Rangers tied the game at three. New Jersey responded to the game tying goal with two more of their own via Langenbrunner and Rolston. Zajac added the sixth on a weak shot that beat Auld through the wickets.

Chicago Blackhawks 3, Los Angeles Kings 2

Everyone’s fully aware of how young and talented the Kings roster currently is, and both are big reasons why they’ve ascended the standings in the ultra competitive West. However, the former of the two came back to bite them big time in overtime, as Brad Richardson’s horrendous behind the back pass in the neutral zone found Dave Bolland’s stick, who quickly turned the puck back up ice to a streaking Patrick Sharp. Jonathan Quick played out of his mind for most of the night(40 for 43), but was left hanging in the breeze when Sharp beat him for the game winner. It was his second goal that night.

Phoenix Coyotes 4, Vancouver Canucks 3

The wildest game of the night ended in shootouts, and that surprises me about negative fourteen percent. For some reason, Vancouver has lived and died(mostly lived) via the comeback, and seem to thrive in a cardiac style of hockey. After Lee Stempniak’s second goal of the night in the third period gave the ‘Yotes a goal lead, Christian Ehrhoff(who I traded for Ales Hemsky three days prior to his season ending injury) tied the game up at three all. The game in the third and added time got really scrappy, as Vernon Fiddler and Alex Burrows exchanged pleasentries quite a few times after Fiddler took Burrows down with a shot after the whistle. In the shootouts, Lee Stempniak, Shane Doan, and Adrian Aucoin scored three consecutive goals, and Ilya Bryzgalov held strong against Mason Raymond to give the Phoenix Coyotes a huge two points in the standings.

Oh yeah, and Dave Tippett called, he wants his Coach of the Year nod.

Aside from Vernon Fiddler constantly jawing with the entire Vancouver Canucks lineup, there were tons of youtube worthy plays for the entire sixty five minutes. Even the shootouts were spectacular, as Lee Stempniak and Shane Doan both put on quite a show.

But without question the play of the night was Andrew Raycroft’s higway robbery of Lee Stempniak in the first period. Stempniak’s wide open blast looked like a sure tally, but Raycroft dove across the pipes and made a seemingly blind save on the ex-Maple Leaf.

Stempniak won the war, however. He tallied two goals and beat Raycroft in the shootouts, and the ‘Yotes won by  the score of 4-3. Here’s the video!

At least, I think that’s how it goes.

For some reason that no Oilers or Senators fan is really aware of still, Zack Stortini thought it’d be a fantastic idea to take a run at Matt Carkner, and then goad him into a fight. The problem is that not only did Carkner refuse for a short time to drop the gloves – almost in a state of shock – it tilted the momentum back the way of Ottawa once Stortini hit the floor.

This is what I call a lose, lose, lose.

It’s seems pretty clear the fan really wasn’t thinking about helping the hometown team like you often see during baseball games when foul balls are hit on the edge of the stands. And really, as Ari Gold of Entourage says: “I paid two grand for these seats! I’ll get out there and launch a three if I want!”

The Raptors lost the game by two points after Kobe Bryant made a circus fading jumper with just seconds left.

Scott Gomez, MTL – The minute forward has been absolutely stellar since Mike Cammallerri went on the injured reserve. In the past twelve games, Gomez has five goals and 10 assists, and is averaging 1.6 PPG in the month of March playing alongside Brian Gionta and Benoit Pouliot.

Chris Stewart, COL – This Toronto, Ontario product already has 52 points on the year, but has been running white hot as of late. Since the beginning of February(12 game sample size), Stewart has 8 goals and 9 assists, good for 1.4 PPG over that stretch. His hat trick against the St. Louis Blues has highlighted this incredible run.

Simon Gagne, PHI – Gagne has only logged 41 games this season, but has made the most of his play over the same twelve game stretch since the beginning of February. Simon has six goals and six assists, including a jaw-dropping four game winners. His goals against the New York Islanders on the 9th and the Toronto Maple Leafs on the 7th have given him two consecutive GWG, and he’ll look for numero tres against Boston on Thursday.

Mikael Samuelsson, VAN -Fresh off his second period hat trick against the Colorado Avalanche, it seems as though nothing will get in the way of this Swede. Over his past twelve, Samuelsson has nine goals and two assists, and has quickly become one of the biggest scoring threats for an already high octane Vancouver offense. He’s also +5 in his past two games.

Manny Legace, CAR – Legace has started five games for the Hurricanes since the beginning of February, and has eased the pain of losing all-world talent Cam Ward. He’s won every start during this five game stretch, and has a .941 save percentage to boot. Legace’s last start against Atlanta earned him a shutout, too.

Every year, the sport of baseball is taking giant leaps away from the traditional statistics of earned run average and batting average, and focusing on the more defined, logical, and still quantifiable. I came across Sabermetrics through a website called Fan Graphs years ago, and since then have looked at the sport of baseball in a completely different manner.

It forces you to stop taking everything in the game for face value and dig deeper. These stats will tell you who is ready to collapse, who is ready to rise, who is running hot, and who is running cold. To give you the wikipedia rehash:

Sabermetrics is the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity rather than industry activity such as attendance. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research. It was coined by Bill James, who was one of its pioneers and has long been its most prominent advocate and public face

Here’s the provided link, and I can personally guarantee that should you make it through the free course, you’ll have a better and more developed understanding of the sport of baseball, period.

Sabermetrics Course

What they’ve decided on is that headshots are still completely legal UNLESS they’re from the blindside, in which they’ll be automatically penalized and subject to possible ejection. Some of the exact terminology used, per TSN:

“A lateral, back pressure or blindside hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and or the principal point of contact is not permitted.

A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline.”

So, if that seems a little vague and part of the gray area that we have come to learn from the National Hockey League, join the club. Apparently, the Scott Stevens hit on Eric Lindros is still completely legal, so I’m assuming this is just a minor tweak at best.

Two other recommendations were made by the GMs as well, including changing the tiebreaking rule and moving to four-man referee teams in the AHL.

The former will be tweaked concerning seeding in the standings, as overall wins has been used in the past in tiebreaker situations. Now, shootout wins have been eliminated in the totals, meaning only regular season and overtime wins will matter.