The official NHL playoff schedule has been released now that the season has come to a close. Click here (NHL.com) to see the schedule for the first round. There were definitely some 11th hour surprises as there were several teams that quite literally limped into the first round of the playoffs.
The St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks stunk it up over the last two weeks and their reward is a date with one another in round one. Their incompetence cleared the way for the Colorado Avalanche to cap their remarkable season with a division crown and a number two seed.
In the east Boston took top honors and wins a date with the Detroit Red Wings who snuck in to the postseason for a mind-boggling 23rd consecutive year, while Pittsburgh managed to avoid a showdown with their nemesis from Philadelphia, drawing Columbus as the top wild card.
Fourteen teams head into the offseason wondering what went wrong, and how they can rebuild for next season. There were plenty of postseason contenders who fell off at the last minute left to rue what could have and probably should have been. Instead, vacations and tee times will commence with the bittersweet flavor of being left to watch the playoffs begin from the outside.
As I mentioned in my Sunday article, there is nothing like the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the 2014 edition will be no exception. However, as great as this postseason promises to be, here are five teams that we’ll miss seeing when the puck drops on the race for the Stanley Cup on Wednesday night.
Washington Capitals-Simply put, Alexander Ovechkin is still the best pure sniper in the league. He may be one-dimensional, he may not play defense and missing the playoffs could send him into a spiral of tracksuit wearing, disco-dancing and Turkish yacht carousing that might derail his offensive excellent over the past 14 months. We all love Ovie and his eccentricities, his enthusiasm and the infectious intensity that he plays the game with. He hasn’t missed the playoffs since his rookie season, and we’ll miss that goofy, gap-toothed smile this year.
Toronto Maple Leafs-The playoffs are always more interesting when the Leafs are in them. Their massive and vocal fan base is second to none and even when they lose they do it in spectacular fashion. As good as Toronto was for much of this past season, they were downright putrid down the stretch. They literally played themselves out of the playoffs despite being loaded top to bottom with some of the premier talent in the NHL.
Vancouver Canucks-Let’s be honest. The NHL playoffs are always better with John Tortorella in them. The Canucks looked like they had ironed things out at the halfway point in the season before imploding at the trade deadline. The Roberto Luongo deal was a curious maneuver in both it’s timing and purpose. It symbolized the end of the Canuck’s season, Mike Gillis’ tenure as the Vancouver GM and possibly Torts’ brief stay with the Canucks.
Edmonton Oilers-I know. The Oilers were never a threat to reach the playoffs. In fact, if not for Buffalo, Edmonton would again be the laughing stock of the NHL. As bad as they were, the Oilers are still talented and fun to watch. I pick them to break through every year it seems, and yet by mid to late November, they seem to have tanked the season. It was a brutal first season for Dallas Eakins as coach, but since the Olympic break, with some upgrades in goal, the Oilers were just below a .500 hockey team (9-11-2). It might be a reach, but I had a lot of fun watching the Oilers even if some of their own jersey-tossing fans didn’t.
New Jersey Devils-I was convinced that the Devils had a last-minute push in them to qualify for the playoffs. Instead, they miss out for the second consecutive season and have a ton of questions to answer regarding their fossil collection: Jaromir Jagr (42) and Martin Brodeur (42) are both free agents. Patrik Elias (38) and Dainius Zubrus (35) are creeping towards collecting Social Security benefits themselves and Lou Lamoreillo will have some tough decisions to make this summer in order to get back to relevance. It would have been nice to see a final playoff run for Marty in a Devils’ sweater, but it was not to be.