the eastern conference playoff bubble gets muddled

there's a cage-match brewing for the 7th and 8th spots in the eastern conference...the ny rangers and sabres are holding their own (barely,) the carolina hurricanes went 0-3-1 between two wins vs. the sabres (then proceeded to lose to the maple leafs,) and toronto is working themselves into the mix as well...atlanta, who started the year near the top of the conference, is still hanging around after their win last night...

and don't forget the torrid play of the new jersey devils, who've gone from possibly owning the top overall pick at this years draft to within six points of the top-eight with a 23-4-2 run...if it weren't for losing to ottawa twice in the last five games, they could be in 9th or 10th making the other bubble teams cringe even more...

as for the sabres?...they've just finished playing nine games in 15 days that started out with a seven game road trip...and you think the team had it rough, check out what newly acquired forward brad boyes has been through since leaving st. louis in late february...brutal...props, though...boyes has seven points in nine games with the sabres...

alas, the sabres are in 8th place right now and are finishing up a three-day break between games...

here's where the 7th through 11th place, eastern conference bubble teams stood at the beginning of the month:

• ny rangers--70 pts
• carolina --67
• buffalo--65
• toronto--63
• atlanta--63

buffalo moved up by snagging 11 pts and are hot on the trail of the rangers, the canes dropped and the leafs and thrash flipped...here's how it looks right now:

• ny rangers--78 pts
• buffalo--76
• carolina--74
• atlanta--72
• toronto--72

the sabres gained some serious ground on the rangers, even moving into 7th place before their 1-0 loss to carolina on tuesday...the rangers went 4-3-0 including a loss to buffalo and a split on a mini west coast road trip...carolina stumbled going 3-4-1, but two of their wins came at the expense of the sabres (one in overtime)...

atlanta is still hanging around even though they did a little selling at the trade deadline...craig ramsay has his team doing what's necessary to stay in the hunt...they're 4-3-1 for the month...toronto did some damage by going 4-4-1 while beating the sabres once and the canes once in the process...their loss last night vs. florida certainly didn't help matters, though...

and we're gonna keep an eye on the devils, although they're in 12th place right now with 70 points...nj shot up into the picture by going 6-2-0 in march and, before last night's 3-1 loss had a streak of 17 games without allowing more than two goals...although they may have faced their own waterloo in ottawa, their record since an 0-4 start to the calendar year cannot be dismissed...

here's the teams and their remaining schedules for the month broken down into games vs. division leaders, playoff teams and non-playoff teams as of right now:

ny rangers (7 games):

• division leader (1)--boston
• playoff (3)--montreal, pittsburgh, buffalo
• non-playoff (3)--florida, ottawa, ny islanders

buffalo (7):

• division leader--none
• playoff (2)--montreal, ny rangers
• non-playoff (5)--atlanta, nashville, florida, nj, toronto

carolina (6):

• division leader (1)--washington
• playoff (3)--tampa bay (2,) montreal
• non-playoff--(2)--ottawa, ny islanders

atlanta (6):

• division (2)--vancouver, philadelphia
• playoff (2)--buffalo, montreal
• non-playoff (2)--ny islanders, ottawa

toronto (6):

• division leader (3)--boston (2,) detroit
• playoff (1)--buffalo
• non-playoff (2)--minnesota, colorado

nj devils (6):

• division leader (2)--washington, boston
• playoff (2)--pittsburgh, buffalo
• non-playoff (2)--colombus, ny islanders

the sabres have the opportunity to solidify their place in the eastern conference and move up to 7th in the second half of the month...they play two of seven vs. teams that are presently in the playoffs picture...crucial games vs. nj and ny rangers coming up and the loser of those two games could have their playoff push stunted...

the rangers and canes have similar, middle-of-the-road schedules while atlanta has a balanced one, although they play the top two teams in the nhl in vancouver and philadelphia...

toronto has a brutal schedule...you can't dismiss them, but it'll be very difficult for them to remain in the hunt while playing division leaders boston twice and detroit once...


all-in-all, the sabres are pretty much just like every other team on the bubble--right around .500...in fact if you look at the eastern conference standings right now no team has better than a two game winning streak (pittsburgh and ny rangers) and only one team has a two game losing streak (ny islanders)...all the rest fall in between...

the mantra from january for the sabres continues:  two points by any means necessary...