Some tight race in the east, indeed. Washington with a win over Detroit today. Islanders beat Rangers, which I didn’t think was going to happen. All in the race have each four games remaining. I don’t think Flyers are coming back.
Capitals are still to play Buffalo, Tampa, Boston, Flyers.
Pittsburg - Detroit, Boston, Nashville, Islanders.
Detroit - Pittsburg, Toronto, Montreal, Montreal.
Islanders - Montreal, Rangers, Devils, Pittsburg.
Red Wings have a bit of an advantage here, imo. Yet, Capitals don’t have to “split” the points with the others in the race - that is, only one team in the race can pick up 2 points when playing each other - but they have to face Boston and Tampa, neither of which is much of a joke. They could also easily lose all four though, lol. Who knows.
I used to be a dedicated Detroit fan, but that was a while back. I am also a Capitals fan. Would be nice for Sid and Malkin to get another chance at the Cup. Can’t say I particularly care for Islanders, as in indifferent. On the other hand, neither of the teams will move too far, regardless of which two get in, imo. So likely it doesn’t really matter who gets in.
Ovechkkn scored his 30th of the season today, taking the historic lead with 18 30-goal seasons. The guy only scored less than 30 once in his career and that was 24 in 45 games when rona ruined everything. 852 goals for this guy so far. At the same time, he is sitting at number four all-time on the hits list as well, according to the official NHL count. On the following list, he is at number 5, but I wanted to see how his goals/points compared to the others on the same list:
Chara is number 14 all-time in hits officially, so not sure what gives (but don’t particularly care either).
Matthews scored his 66 today. With four games remaining, can he get to 70? He has to score 487 more goals to catch up to the guy talked about above, rather this today’s talley. He is also 12 years younger and played about 880 less games. He only played all 82 games of the season once in his career so far though (his rookie season).
9 players have so far scored 100 points or more this season, with Nylander potentially (likely?) getting there as well (currently at 96).
9 teams have so far over 100 points with at least a couple more likely to get there.