Trade deadline

I promise I won't generally post as frequently as I did yesterday, but today I probably will, because we are, at writing, 5 hours and 8 minutes from the trade deadline. I don't expect us to do, well, anything - but I'll be looking around in case we do. Also, quick recap of last night: all the bad teams won. Flyers, 'Canes, Panthers, and Pens each put up 2 last night. Really? Boston? Washington? You goddamn jerks. Actually, the Caps' latest slide has me thinking that Boston will handily hand them their asses in the conference final - they've looked like a team with a lot of skill that can't seal the deal. That said, they also could be poised to make some depth shifts here on trade deadline day - the kind of deals that seem small at the time, but then when Stephane Matteau scores a wraparound in double overtime, they go down as some of the greatest trade deadline day moves in history. Someone like a Brooks Laich or a Tomas Fleichmann? Whatever, I am obviously guessing, for lack of the cap space to talk about my own team. The point is, as the two teams that I expect to go to the conference final, you jerks could have helped out a little. Quick look at the standings, after last night's travesty of wins:

4. Philadelphia, 78 pts, 20 GR
5. Montréal, 75 pts, 19 GR
6. Florida, 74 pts, 18 GR
7. NEW YORK RANGERS, 72 pts, 18 GR
8. Pittsburgh, 72 pts, 17 GR
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9. Carolina, 71 pts, 17 GR
10. Buffalo, 69 pts, 19 GR

What does this tell us? 1) I should really stop thinking about 4th, which is now 6 points PLUS 2 games-in-hand out of reach, while the Flyers just keep fucking winning (6-2-1 in their last 9, including beating the goddamn Bruins last night). 2) We are actually games-in-hand from out of the playoffs. If we lose our game-in-hand over the Pens, they still have one more win than we do, which puts them in 7th and us in 8th, each with 72 pts and 17 GR. Then if the Sabres win their two games-in-hand...69+4=....Rangers in 9th. How important are the next few games? Yeah, they're that important.

Oh, and tonight, the Canadiens play the Sabres. So somehow, at least 2 points are going into this system. Buffalo will end up at 71, or Montréal will end up at 77, or, with our luck, they'll go to overtime. Yeah.