Double Shifted

The top eight teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: 8: Anaheim Ducks While Anaheim has clinched the first seed in the Pacific Division, they still don't look as strong as teams like New York or Columbus. Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler are both having great years, and Patrick Eaves is enjoying success with the team after his trade-deadline deal with the Dallas Stars, but the Ducks' goaltending isn't strong enough and they don't have that Norris-caliber defenseman. They should be able to win their first-round series against Calgary but don't have enough to go much farther.  7: Columbus Blue Jackets The Blue Jackets are facing the defending Stanley Cup Champions but the Penguins couldn't be more banged up. Kris Letang  will miss the entire playoffs, which puts the Penguins at a disadvantage from the start. Without Letang, it will be tougher to control Cam Atkinson, who is having a great year. Alexander Wennberg and Brandon Saad (making his first return to the pl...

The Bracket Challenge is back. After the long March Madness brackets, the NHL has given us a way for March Madness to become our favorite sport. The NHL's Bracket Challenge is fun and easy to do, and lots of fans enjoy it. The best bracket gets two tickets to the NHL Awards in Las Vegas, the runner-up gets a bubble hockey table, and 3-8 get $100 gift cards to Nhl.com, with lots of great gear to be bought. The Bracket Challenge is a fun way to get excited for the playoffs (see also: hype videos). Join the Double Shifted Bracket League  Here

The Maple Leafs snapped a two-game skid last night, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins and finalizing the playoff teams. (Even though some of the seedings weren't correct,  this  and  this  correctly predicted the playoff teams.) Some of the matchups are set already (Chicago-Nashville, Montreal-New York, St. Louis-Minnesota) but the rest will come down to the last day of the regular season, and this is it. With that in had, we're going to look at your team's playoff chances, ranked from 1 to 16. This first half is teams 16 to 8. Here's the  current playoff bracket .  16: Boston Bruins  We got a preview of this already this week. Boston lost to the Capitals 3-1 and could only put one past backup Philipp Grubauer, and the Bruins aren't going to see him starting in net in the playoffs. Boston is a good team, and it's hard to determine which team finishes in the 16 spot. The Capitals are too good to lose in a series against a wild-card team like the Brui...

The Lightning won last night against division leader Montreal (Even though they had nothing to play for and were without captain Shea Weber, Jordie Benn, and Alexi Emelin, Tampa Bay was missing Tyler Johnson, J.T. Brown, Jason Garrison, and Steven Stamkos- still.) They pulled out a 4-2 win with two goals from Yanni Gourde and a goal and assist coming from Nikita Kucherov. With the Lightning win, they kept themselves in the playoff race. So have the Islanders, who have won four in a row and need to make it six to get themselves in.  The Toronto Maple Leafs are hanging on to the final spot in the East. A loss for the two teams or a Maple Leafs win puts Toronto in the playoffs. The Leafs have an 88 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to HockeyViz.com. They are on a two-game skid, where at the start of the week they were in a divisional slot and looked close to clinching. There is no panic in Toronto, with the answer to the pressure being that the Leafs can lose both ...

Somehow still complains about the call.  Well, Brad Marchand , you've done it again. Marchand is having a career year right now, with a career-high 85 points, career-high 39 goals and a career-high 46 assists. He ranks second in goal-scoring to only Sidney Crosby, and is fourth in points. Before the season began, Marchand was selected to go to the World Cup of Hockey to represent Canada, no small honor. He helped Canada place first, and during this season could have jumped to superstar status. Instead, he started looking like a dirty player. Marchand slew-footed Niklas Kronwall late January of this year. He got away without a suspension, and only had to pay the maximum fine ($10,000). And that wasn't the first time. Marchand had a dirty hit in 2012 that cost him a five-game suspension. He then got suspended in 2014-15 for slew-footing Derick Brassard for two games. He got suspended in 2015 for three games for another dirty hit that cost him the opportunity to play in...

Only six teams were active last night-the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, and Florida Panthers. Let's take a quick look at how those games went. Maple Leafs at Sabres There was no score with under five minutes to go in Buffalo, but the Maple Leafs changed that, getting three goals from Leo Komarov, Auston Matthews, and James Van Riemsdyk in 43 seconds to give the Leafs a 3-0 lead heading into the second. Matthews' goal was his 39th of the year, which gave him his 67th point and the new Maple Leafs rookie scoring record. In the second period, Ryan O'Reilly scored to cut the lead to two, but Nazem Kadri would score his 31st in the third to put the game away. Jack Eichel scored at 19:04 of the third period, but it wasn't enough as Frederick Andersen hung on and made 20 saves. Final: Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 2 Senators at Red Wings No goals were scored through the first period. In the second, Frans Nie...

The NHL ann ounced today that it will not adjust its schedule to accommodate for the 2018 PyeonChang Olympics. Player reactions ranged from saying it was "disappointing", "crap" and an "opportunity was wasted". The NHLPA said that the decision was "shortsighted", and USA Hockey said that they still planned on competing, even without NHL players.  But maybe Gary Bettman is right. The NHL has said that the NHL franchises and owners were not interested in shutting down the NHL for four months. Last fall, the NHL tried to offer Olympic participation for the NHLPA if they agreed to a three-year extension of the current CBA, and the NHLPA decline.  The NHL also said they were open to hearing from the NHLPA, IOF, or any group with a reason for the NHL to re-evaluate their decision. They didn't get one, and did the right thing in continuing with the season as regularly scheduled.  During the Sochi Olympics, seven players sustained injuries ...

Sunday night was an interesting one. Stars shined, players were injured, and rising heroes emerged. So, just your average NHL game day. The Bruins kicked off Sunday with a big win against the conference-clinching Blackhawks. Anton Khudobin had a night, outperforming the Blackhawks with only two goals against and stopping a flurry of great chances in the waning seconds as the Blackhawks pulled their goalie. I'd like to see him play in a playoff series and discover if he can become  the next Devan Dubnyk story. Final: Bruins 3, Blackhawks 2 The Islanders and the Sabres met in Buffalo, New York not having been eliminated yet. The Islanders got an early lead on a Cal Clutterbuck goal, his fifth of the year. Evander Kane tied it up but the Isles answered back quickly on a Joshua Ho-Sang goal. They never looked back, as Anders Lee would score twice in the third. Jaroslav Halak made 35 saves to put the Islanders five points out of a playoff spot. Final: Islanders 4, Sabres 2 ...

The Stars came into this season coming off of a seven-game second round exit to the St. Louis Blues. They were the top seed in the Central Division, coming off of an 109-point season that was second only to the Washington Capital's 120 points, along with having the fourth-best power play in the NHL. Captain Jamie Benn was expected to be a superstar in 2016-17, as he finished second in points only to the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane, who would go on to win the Art Ross, Ted Lindsay, and Hart Trophy. So was Tyler Seguin, after a 30-goal, 70 point season, and Jason Spezza wasn't far behind with 33 goals and 30 assists. A year before, Benn had won the Art Ross with 87 points, and Seguin had finished seventh in scoring. The Stars were expected to be a contender if not a favorite this year. And then the wheels fell off. Seguin and Benn are ranked 14th and 20th in points, and the next closest player is Spezza, ranked 101st. (Patrick Eaves was ranked 98th and was then traded...

The Washington Capitals have a great track record during the regular season. Last year, they won the President's trophy, which is awarded to the NHL team with the best regular-season record, by 11 points. They drew the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round, and beat them in a six-game series. Washington was a popular Stanley Cup Champion choice, and then they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. Pittsburgh did go on to win the Stanley Cup, but this is a recurring incident.  In 2015, Washington was a talented team near the top of the Eastern Conference. Alexander Ovechkin was enjoying an 81-point, 53 goal year. The Capitals again won their first-round matchup against the New York Islanders in seven games, but with only two goals from Ovechkin. Another seven-game series was next against the New York Rangers. Ovechkin would go on to score three in that series, but Washington would lose in overtime of Game 7 on a goal by Derek Stephan.  In the 2014 season, W...