A couple of thoughts in preparation for tonight's game against Montreal.
(1) Ottawa has six games left this season, and with no chance of them reaching the post-season, you wonder just how hard they're going to show up. It has to be difficult, even for the guys playing for future jobs, to effectively play out the string on a lost season.
The games are split down the middle -- three at home, including tonight's game against Montreal -- and three on the road. I'm not even sure there's a meaningful game left on the slate, to be honest. Maybe New Jersey, if they can go on a run. Montreal's in, New York's in, Long Island's out, Pittsburgh's basically in their rest-phase, and Toronto will be eliminated before the last Battle of Ontario on April 12th.
I think that's part of the reason why Paul MacLean decided to keep JG Pageau up with the big-league team, even after getting word that Jason Spezza would return from injury for tonight's match. In these instances, it can't really hurt to have a few of the hungrier kids fighting for every minute of ice-time getting a look against meaningful competition. I think the team knows Pageau's just about ready to permanently graduate from the AHL, so before sending him back for the Calder Cup stuff, give him some minutes at the NHL-level. Makes some sense to me.
Speaking of Spezza, it's not really clear what his return means for the lineup. It's likely that he'll draw back in with Ales Hemsky and Milan Michalek, but nothing's been confirmed. Such a move would push Mika Zibanejad back down to the team's fourth-line.
(2) It looks like Montreal's set to draw Tampa Bay in the first-round of the playoffs, the only question that really seems to be undecided is who gets home-ice advantage. To me, it's the second-most intriguing series, because I think both teams are pretty good.
I don't think Montreal's as good as they were last year (last year's team was really good), but I'm a bit skeptical that Tampa Bay is good enough this season to upset them, anyway. Just because of the coin-flip nature of the match-up, I see this series easily going six, maybe seven games. That automatically makes it better than basically half of the bloodbaths I'm expecting.
But, on this first-round match-up point.. it's sort of terrible that San Jose and Los Angeles are going to have to play one another, unless there's a real change in position in the next week or so. For my money, you're talking about the two best teams in hockey, with Boston and Chicago and St. Louis rounding out the top-five.
I think this sort of illustrates my point, anyway.
That's, uh, unfortunate for whoever loses that series. Because you know the front office might very possibly do something dumb, rather than admit that they got absolutely boned by the draw.
Conversely, St. Louis gets to steamroll Minnesota, and Chicago -- as a result of finishing third in the division -- will likely get to pound Colorado into the sand, assuming Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are ready to go by then.
Hockey's funny. And cruel.
Thanks for reading!