This Is The End...

By Adam W Parks

Well all my beautiful friends, today the NHL regular season ends, and plenty of playoff seeds (and one berth) hang in the balance in both the Eastern and Western Conferences (see Rangers @ Flyers).

The Wings hit 100 points for the tenth straight season on Friday with a 1-0 shootout win over Columbus. The victory lofted Detroit into the fifth spot, but a loss to the Hawks today could drop them down to the seventh seed.

Chicago is riding a six game winning streak, and a seventh against Detroit would clinch the top spot in the West.

The Predators finished their impressive season with a shootout win last night against the Blues to tie the Wings in points. The Kings fell to the Oilers in a shootout, but the point earned in the loss kept them within one of Detroit. Los Angeles is in Colorado this afternoon.

Here is what the West looks like before the games today:

1. San Jose--113 points--0 games remaining
2. Chicago--111--1
3. Vancouver--103--0
4. Phoenix--107--0
5. Detroit--100--1
6. Nashville--100--0
7. Los Angeles--99--1
8. Colorado--94--1

Here is a breakdown of all the possible playoff scenarios based on all the possible outcomes for today:

Detroit Wins

If the Wings beat the Hawks then they will clinch the fifth seed and would play Phoenix in the first round. The Coyotes split the four-game season series with Detroit but needed overtime in each of their wins.

Ilya Bryzgalov is an incredible goalie, the best in the West in this writer's opinion, and has the potential to win a playoff series on his own. However he has not displayed dominance over Detroit. He gave up a total of 13 goals in the series and has yet to face a fully healthy Wings roster.

The fifth seed is ideal because you always want to finish as high in the standings as possible, but something scares me about the Coyotes.

Detroit Loses In Overtime/Shootout

In this scenario the Wings could still clinch the fifth spot, but they would need the Kings to lose. If Los Angeles gets two points then the teams would be tied with 101 points and the tiebreaker would be in favor of the Kings.

The Wings have an ugly-ass amount of overtime/shootout losses with 14. There are only three other teams in the league that have as many or more, and each is eliminated from playoff contention: Toronto (14), Dallas (14), Columbus (15). Why is this important? The first criteria for the tiebreaker is total wins, and the Wings have just 43 to LA's 45.

So, if the Kings win and the Wings only earn a point, Detroit will land in the sixth spot and face Vancouver. The Canucks are a scary team with all of that offense. Only Washington (315) has scored more goals than 'Couver (272) this season (the Wings scored 226). Roberto Luongo has not been stellar this season, but he does have Olympic gold confidence.

But like Bryzgalov, the Wings have been able to put plenty of pucks past Luongo. Detroit scored 15 goals in three wins and one loss against Vancouver this season. I like this matchup, but the Sedin brothers, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, and the familiar Mikael Samuelsson (30 goals this season) are deadly. The pressure would fall on Jimmy Howard for the Wings to get past the Canucks.

Wings Lose In Regulation

This scenario would also depend on what the Kings do. If both Detroit and LA lose in regulation, then the Wings would place sixth and play Vancouver since Nashville (47 wins) also holds the tiebreaker edge over the Wings.

Say the the Kings earn at least one point. Detroit would then slip all the way to seventh place. There they would have the second place Sharks served up on a platter. San Jose has been just as hot as the Wings over their last ten games (8-1-1), but Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley, Dan Boyle, and Evgeni Nabokov do not seem as scary as they should.

The Sharks picked up just one win against Detroit this season, a shootout victory at The Joe back in February. The Wings played especially great inside the Shark Tank, winning two games by a combined score of 8-3. I would love to see Detroit matchup with San Jose in the first round, but I would hate to see it happen from a Wings loss today.

What an exciting Sunday! So much is riding on this last day of NHL play. This is the end! The West is the best! Get here, and we'll do the rest! The playoff bus...is calling us...

Peace.