Although my Wild where knocked out first round, I am really enjoying this years playoffs. Not really rooting for any particular team just for lots of overtimes so more hockey. :)

At least the Wild got some much needed playoff experience. We'll see them around again many times in the post season.

next year will be interesting because of this short season
Last time there was a abbreviated season my Oilers went to SCF (completely undeserved I might add) and then failed to make play offs every season since

This season there have been some surprises and I honestly dont think they carry over next year.
Hardest hit will be the East because Detroit and Columbus are moving to East and Winnipeg moving to west

Detroit WILL knock a eastern team out of the play offs next year and personally I think it will be the Leafs they over take and grab spot from
Columbus almost made play offs this season with a late push in the widely acknowledged harder western conference, so they could in theory over take someone in the east as well next season. But thats less a sure thing as Detroit is.
Philly will be much improved next season playing a full regular season rather then a condensed one that punishes veteran players recovery times. How ever goaltending remains a huge issue for them.
Tampa will make play offs next season, mark my words. To much talent there and now they have a goalie to rely on.
Carolina also should be much improved next season

All told Toronto and Montreal look to be heading back to missing the post season in the East as 2 of those 4 teams will live up to expectations and over take them.
Toronto had the perfect season for them and capitalized but over a full season facing veteran players who will have time to recover between games, doesnt look good for the still rebuilding Leafs. Leafs still 2-3 years out from making a solid push heading into post season.

Montreal is a tale of 2 teams and the team we saw at the end of the shortened season losing much more then winning is the real team there.
Way to many holes and problems and ego clashes going on there for team to grow and excell.

Out west
You gotta feel for Winnipeg Jets, So close to almost making play offs in East and now they in west were they will realistically see a 20 point drop in standings as playing in a much more competitive conference
In the east you have Pitts and Boston as the front runner and everyone else is far below them
In the West it could literally go between 4 teams and the next step down is still a high standard of play.
Only good thing for Jets is if my Oilers keep Krueger as head coach they should be able to grab some easy points from my team sadly (Oilers have the skill, have the goaltending, they desperately need a real NHL coach who isnt trying to turn them into the Swiss National Team for the IHL)
Jets will not be seeing play offs for a good 4 years or more. Team has some great peices but in the west its simply not deep enough to compete.

Vancouver will be heading down the standings. They started this year to dip off and not winning the Presidents cup for first time in 3 seasons. Typically for a team in decline they can hang on to play off spot (but never truely compete) for another 5-6 seasons before its blow up time and complete top to bottom rebuild. Contray to Canuck fans, they have not been able to sign quality free agents for a number of seasons and their AHL team is pretty much bone dry of legitimate NHL potential. So unless they can pull off some amazing trades and win the trades big every time, future points downward for the Canucks

My Oilers have the peices to start competeing for the 6-8 play off spot but quit playing for Krueger multiple stretchs last season so thats only going to get worse over a full season. Edmonton needs a NHL quality coach, not a 2nd rate motivational speaker the players already tuning out. Depth wise Oilers one of the richest franchises in league and only getting better. Just need some veteran leadership, some blue line toughness, and a coach to bring them togather as a team. So unless Krueger gets the boot before next season, I sadly dont see my team hitting play offs for the 8th straight season.

LA is still the premier play off preformer team of the west, but they struggle in the regular season as its called much tighter and is a much softer game in the regular season. Its not beyond the realm of possibility LA misses play offs because of this. But once they in they are deadly as the whistles get put away and teams allowed to play the game more.

Minni is a strange one. I know Minni fans like to think because they got Parise and Suter and Lemaire no longer there they no longer a trap team. But truth of matter is they still fall into that style of play far to often and that hurts players like Parise and Suter who while they played for trap teams themselves in NJ and Nashville, they were allowed to free wheel much more then others. Minni is on the cusp of being that 7-8 play off spot but still needs to tweak team towards the offense side of game before they will move past that 7-8 spot. And as we all know in this league, being 7-8 can easily turn into 9-10 and missing play offs. Team on the rise but definately not there yet.

Dallas heading into rebuild
Calgary will be non starter for many years now as their cupboards are bare empty talent wise and their goalie is no where near starter quality for the west
Anaheim will stay about where it is as they really dont have any cap room to improve team much
Sharks are having their final hurray and with in next 2 seasons will probably find themselves on the outside looking in come play offs
Nashville is always hard nosed to play against with Trotz coaching
Phoenix NEEDS to resign their coach badly. Hes what keep that team afloat. Smith wouldnt be a huge lose because as we saw with Bryzgalov, its the system that makes Phoneix goalies so stellar good. Not the goalies making the system.
St Louis, Chicago are going to continue to be scary scary scary to face

Edmonton's biggest issue isn't coaching, it's a horrible blue line corps. Seriously, they have perhaps three guys who would be regular defensemen for most other teams in the league. They don't have anyone capable of consistently bringing the puck up ice and getting it to the forwards.

It doesn't help that they back 6 forwards contribute next to nothing offensively. There is absolutely no offensive depth. It's an incredibly top heavy lineup that is entirely reliant on the 1st and 2nd line to score. It might help if the 3rd and 4th liners could at least check and play good two way hockey, but too many of them don't really do much of anything.

I honestly think that the best thing MacTavish could do is fire every single scout in that organization. their pro signings have been disasters. And yeah, they hit on a bunch of #1 picks...congratulations, who wouldn't? Meanwhile, where are the successful picks in the other rounds to fill in the lineup?

Not trying to ber a jerk here, but that's not true at all. There were a ton of disciplinary inconsistencies under Colin Campbell's watch. Illustrative case in point: Several years back, the NHL instituted a rule wherein if someone instigated a fight with less than two minutes left in a game, they were to be suspended for the next game. A fight breaks out with less than a minute to go in a playoff game between the Pens and Caps. Who started the fight? Evgeni Malkin. Who didn't get a suspension for the next game? Evgeni Malkin.

I'm not sticking up for Shanahan's performance. Just pointing out that the league's penchant for inconsistency and 'all players are equal, but some are more equal than others' approach didn't start on his watch.

I'm a Pens fan. Why would I be bitter?

If the Oilers had depth, they wouldn't be stuck with failed signings like Belanger taking up ice time. Hartakainen MIGHT be a good player one day, but he has absolutely no consistency. One minute he's using his size and speed and playing a great game. The next minute he's just coasting around not making an impact.

Worst coach in Oiler history? George Burnett would like a word with you...if you can find him. :)

On defense, Klefbom sounds legit. But counting on him to just step up and instantly become a big PP producer is a bit premature. He has almost no experience outside of European sized ice surfaces. Musil is far from a sure thing for next year. Same with Marincin. And finding a puck moving defenseman is not an easy task these days. Everybody wants them, so nobody just lets them walk away.

And even if those kids all manage to pan out,who is suddenly going to fill out the bottom 6? the same cast of guys who couldn't do it this year? I think Lander is likely the 4th line center (Belanger will be bought out), but who else has shown the consistent ability to warrant a spot night in, night out?

Ryan Smyth's game has faded so badly that there are actually letters to the editors of local papers asking if he should be bought out. You can't lead if you don't play, and his current level of skill merits nothing more than 4th line ice time these days.

It's all fine and good to blame the coach for playing the vets, but who else is he supposed to play? Think maybe ownership wanted Belanger and his $1.75 mil salary on the ice? Krueger didn't sign all those vets who don't contribute, but he's the one stuck with them. Edmonton's pro scouting department has been awful for at least a decade (dating back to those GLORIOUS decisions to pick up used up Adam Oates and never was Jiri Dopita), and they should be fired. Then again, Lowe is the 'genius' who saddled them with a pile of horrible contracts, but he gets to be President...that's smart.

Finally, they need veteran help, but no veteran wants a part of instability. Firing a 4th coach in 5 years is a surefire sign of a clueless, unstable organization that doesn't know what they're doing.

Habs fan represent. I think Montreal did rather well this year, considering last year we finished dead last in the conference. Next year, watch out!

Man what a way to end it for the Hawks and Wings. Of course I believe the outcome was correct :)

Hell of a series! Detroit's got their eyes locked on owning the East, now. It took Chicago 87 years to become better than the Wings, I'm fine going out this way. They've been a hell of an adversary, playing Detroit's puck possession game better than us even. They better go on now to win the Cup from those joke(r)s in Cali.

Blackhawks! Wooooooooo!

Damn, that was a beastly game!

Yes it was, hella fun though

Triple overtime goodness