The Buffalo Sabres will not be getting two lottery picks in this Monday night’s NHL lottery draft after all. On the day that his former Sabres team mates cleaned out their lockers and then scattered to parts unknown, Pommer and his new Wild teammates are headed to the playoffs. Pominville will face Patrick Kane in round one.
The Minnesota Wild are alive and kicking right now despite two big scares over the weekend that may have ended their season. They were trounced by Edmonton on Friday night, then won a white knuckle affair vs. Colorado in their season finale.
The Sabres are kicking themselves because the just lost out on another lottery pick in this June's NHL draft. Had the Wild lost to the Avs, the Wild would have finished 10th over all in the West. Their win gives them 55 points and sole possession of 8th place.
Buffalo's conditional 1st rounder that it received along with a 2014 2nd rounder, G Matt Hackett, and C Johan Larsson, would have provided more value to Buffalo had the Wild missed the playoff entirely.
Pominville magic was at work on Saturday night. The former Sabres captain is sidelined with a head injury, believed to be a concussion that he suffered at the elbow of LA Kings captain Dustin Brown.
Stick tap to Nick Foligno and his remarkable Blue Jacket teammates. They defeated the Nashville Predators on Saturday night, at the same time the Detroit Red Wings were defeating the Dallas Stars, 3-0.
Lumbus needed help from Colorado in order to earn a playoff spot. The Avs lost 3-1 to the Wild, thus, the Blue Jax are out of the running for Western conference playoffs.
The Red Wings have earned a playoff berth in 22 straight seasons.
Minnesota and Detroit have earned the final two Western conference playoff spots.
Minnesota will play Chicago on round one. Detroit vs. Anaheim
The Toronto Marlies have been giving the Rochester Americans fits all season long.
On Saturday afternoon in Toronto, the Amerks brought their A-game to the Ricoh Coliseum.
For thirty eight minutes, the Amerks looked like they were ready to reverse the Toronto winning trend. Sabtres 2012 first rounder (14th overall) Zemgus Girgensons scored twice, while the "Grumpy Swede" Johan Larsson notched two assists in his first AHL postseason game. Veteran badass Cody McCormick scored the other Amerks goal.
David Leggio finished with 12 saves on 17 shots in the loss.
The Amerks badly out shot the Marlies 34-18.
Greg Scott scored four times for Toronto.
The Amerks are now 19-24 all-time in playoff series openers.
The score was tied 3-3, then Drew MacIntyre changed the tenor of the game with this gem of a save.
MacIntyre's behind-the-back glove save buoyed the Marlies and it allowed them to get into the garage tied 3-3 after 40. The Amerks won the second period and were on the attack at the time MacIntyre flashed his leather.
The Marlies would storm out of their room and then score three third period goals.
6-3 Marlies win.
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Mikhail Grigorenko didn't play in game one. He will play in game two.
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