Fight for Eighth in the West

With the regular season coming to a close, the fight for eight is tremendous; both in the East and West conferences. How would've though that the Flames would be on the outside looking in, if you were to ask someone in the pre-season. Many changes were made to this struggling team of late, with Dion Phaneuf being dealt off along with many others. The Calgary Flames are right now tied with Colorado for eighth, but since they have played 2 more games than the Avs, Colorado gets the upper hand.
Tonights game between Colorado and the Sharks, has it's values for both teams. For the Sharks because they need to secure top spot in the conference with Chicago stacking up the points as of late. For the Avalanche because of course they need the points for separation from the flames, with their games in hand.

Although it seems very dim, the Ducks and the Blues still might have a chance to slip in the sacred eighth spot and make the playoffs. But in order for that to happen they will have to win all of their games to come and hope for the worst for the flames and avalanche.

The big game that was played last Friday between the flames and avalanche, where the flames got the two points that were so desperately needed, set us for a great last regular season run. This will no doubtingly be a great race to watch and to see who will get that eight and final spot.

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Can San Jose Make it Far into the Playoffs ?

Another year coming to an end, and another San Jose team top in the Western Conference for the last 4 seasons. But this year, you could say there's something different.  Instead of San Jose, packing the bags and cruising for the last 10 or so games of the season, this year San Jose is still making the effort to continue their "A" game, and finishing top in the conference because it is still questionable, with the Canucks and BlackHawks in their tail chasing them until the end.

San Jose has the offence this year with the addition of Dany Heatly in the off-season, despite the inconsistent Cheechoo, to say the least has been traded out.  The defense of the Sharks have also been questionable all season,  with the loss of a solid veteran defense man; Christian Ehrhoff.  The goaltending for Evgeni Nabokov has been more of a roller coaster ride; rather than a walk in the park. Lately, Nabokov has been on top of his game with 3 wins out of his last 5 games.

Watch for the Sharks in the playoffs this year, with them still fighting for a playoff spot the Sharks will stay on top of their game come playoff time, this will keep them in shape for the first round, unlike previous years when the Sharks had their time to rest before playoff time. The Sharks haven't made it past the second round in their history other than the 03-04 season. The experience on the team is also a lack of assets that the Sharks don't have.



Watch the Video Below for the Last Game vs .  Dallas [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8TSiVbSU3U]

Micheal Grabner Emerging into Starter ?

With a hat trick in the Anehiem game, Micheal Grabner is starting to emerge into a solid forward with the confidence needed as a NHL player. With the loss of Samuelsson, the Canucks needed a wing-man and apparentley Grabner is the guy. This leaves Cody Hodgson and his chances of playing with a starting Vancouver Canucks line-up. Honestly, I do not beileve that Hodgson deserves a chance to play with the Canucks… yet. He should work his way up from the minors, as like Grabner did.

But this Jordan Schroeder in the dust as the Canucks don’t have much room to be filled into, as the Sedins, Kesler and Burrows have been signed for at least the next 3 years. As a first round pick in the 2009 draft, Jordan still has some years to condition and prepare himself for the NHL that would be a whole different story for him.