Last night's action had all the expectations for evenly matched games. An even they were. Three of four were decided by one goal, one in shootout and the other two by goals in last two minutes. However, the game with most on the line was between Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets. Both outside of the playoff crowd, but within striking distance. The Jets could have jumped over Washington to regain the Eastern conference's eighth position and to end up within one victory of the division lead and home ice advantage. The Flames had a chance to get within one point of the eighth spot in the West. Calgary ended up victorious with strong play of their veteran core, Jarome Iginla, Alex Tanguay and Olli Jokinen. Now both teams stand ninth in their conference and keep on firing on all possible cylinders to make it to the postseason.
At the same time Los Angeles Kings failed to outplay dramatically injured Detroit Red Wings. The Wings' play was outstanding and their remaining star forwards Zetterberg and Filppula delvered when needed. LA is now tied with Calgary on the Western ninth position and seems to have lost their recently discovered edge in the last few games.
On the top of the league NY Rangers have hit some sort of a funk, losing third straight and Pittsburgh Penguins keep on rolling behind strong performances from their leading players Evgeni Malkin and James Neal. Penguins' winning streak reached eight games.
All in all, the playoff bubble is as exiting as it can be on both conferences and almost every night sees one team lose its playoff position to another. It's going to be fun to keep following events and blogging the latest highlights.
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