Draft position update

With one day left in the regular season, the Isles can still finish anywhere from 25th to 28th.

The Isles loss tonight means that they can not catch Atlanta or Carolina (the Hurricanes own the head-to-head tiebreaker)  Tampa's shootout win means that the Isles still have a chance to drop to 28th, and own the 3rd seed in the draft lottery.

Standings:
1 Edmonton Oilers             81 27 46 8 62
2 Toronto Maple Leafs       81 30 37 14 74

3 Florida Panthers              81 32 36 13 77
4 Tampa Bay Lightning      81 33 36 12 78
5 New York Islanders         81 34 37 10 78
6 Columbus Blue Jackets  82 32 35 15 79

7 Carolina Hurricanes        82 35 37 10 80
8 Atlanta Thrashers           82 35 34 13 83

Sunday's Draft position schedule:

Tampa Bay @ Florida 5:00
Isles host Pittsburgh 5:00

If Isles win -- Isles finish 25th (6th seed)
If Isles lose in OT/SO -- Isles finish 25th (6th seed) if Florida beats Tampa and finish 26th (5th seed) if Tampa beats Florida
If Isles lose in regulation - Isles finish 27th (4th seed) unless Florida beats Tampa in overtime/shootout.  If that happens, Isles finish 28th (3rd seed)

The draft lottery is Tuesday.

 Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: forever1940.blogspot.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick