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"The Skinny"  By Eric Hornick Game 21 Isles 3, St. Louis 1 Kyle Palmieri scored twice, and Brock Nelson added a power play goal an...

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Updated strength of schedule

The Isles will carry the 4th-easiest  Eastern Conference schedule into tonight's game with Philadelphia.

Four Easiest in East
1.  Rangers  .491    after playing Tor/NYI, none of their final 7 opponents are in a playoff spot
2.  Winnipeg .510    ...but Isles/Wsh/Montreal are three of their final 4
3.  Boston   .519      Along with Carolina, only teams with 11 to play in final 20 days
4.  Isles .520            Final 5-gm road trip includes 4 teams not currently in a spot

Four Toughest:
1. Devils .594           7 of final 9 vs teams in current top 8, including 2 trips to MSG
2. Capitals .591        Did you know Washington does NOT own a regulation win against a team currently in top 8?  (Thanks NHL.com) 
3. Hurricanes .583    Next 4, and 7 of 10 left vs current playoff teams
4. Buffalo .576         only 4 points behind Isles...but only 11 ROW to Isles 16.

Isles and Flyers with 6:30 pre-game on MSG+ tonight. The Isles will move into 7th place with a point, and could tie Ottawa in points with a victory.

Other games in East tonight:
  • Buffalo at Winnipeg  -- the Jets start play 2 points behind the Isles, Rangers and Capitals but because of tie-breakers can't catch any of them on Tuesday.
  • Ottawa at Tampa Bay -- Ottawa leads the Isles/Rangers by two points, but trail 5th place Toronto by four points.
  • Washington at Montreal -- Washington leads the Southeast by 2 points over Winnipeg.
  • Pittsburgh at Carolina -- The Canes were leading their division on March 18th but are 1-11-1 in their last 13; they could fall to 14th place on Tuesday. Pittsburgh will clinch the Atlantic with a victory.
Pittsburgh's clinch scenario involves ROWs (Regulation Overtime Wins).  A Pittsburgh victory tonight would give them 60 points and either 26 or 27 ROWs.  Starting play tonight, both the Isles and Rangers can get to 60 points, but neither can have more than 25 ROWs.  

(Technically since they play either other on Saturday, we know that both the Isles and Rangers can't reach 60 point-- they both can't win on Saturday.) 
 

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