Western Conference Showdown - Nashville, Vancouver and Edmonton

If you have not checked in the past 2 minutes you will see that currently (3/30 @ 2am ... yes, I am up blogging at this time ... SO!) there is a 3 way tie for the coveted 8th slot in the Western Conference playoffs. Both Nashville and Vancouver hold 2 games in hand to Edmonton. Nashville's last 4 games are against Detroit, St Louis and Chicago, while Vancouver gets to play with the Flames, Avalanche and Oilers. 3 out of 4 games for Nashville are on the road while Vancouver hosts their last 4 opponents. Here is a snapshot of how the the Western Conference looks right now:


(Source: NHL.com)

Nashville has not really dominated any of the teams they are going up against this season. It will be interesting to watch if Nashville can pull out a playoff berth in the end - especially with the new owners, now wouldn't that be nice! Here is where the Predators stand against its remaining adversaries!
Detroit @ 3-3-1
St Louis @ 3-2-1 (Nashville plays them 2 times in their last 4 games)
Chicago @ 3-3-1

Vancouver has seen their ups and downs this year, special thanks must go out to Roberto Luongo who has helped them as best as he could this year. He is sitting with a 34-26-9 record with 6 shut outs. He has a 2.33 GAA and a .919 SV% ... according to the Fantasy Hockey universe Roberto is #2 right behind Henrik Lundqvist. According to the NHL stats in Wins he is tied for 6th with 34, His GAA has him in 10th and his SV% has him tied for 4th ... Not to shabby when he has to sit and watch the team in front of him fall apart and play inconsistent hockey. With that said, lets look at Vancouvers series tallies against their final matchups.
Calgary @ 4-2-0 (Calgary plays Vancouver 2 more times in the next 4 games)
Colorado @ 2-4-1
Edmonton @ 4-0-3

Seeing how Vancouver has been able to take Edmonton past regulation I am sure they will be hoping for at least one point in the column when that game is played. Colorado has figured out how to play Vancouver hockey, and with the Avalanche being one game in the hole to Vancouver and only 4 points in front of them - I am certain they are reviewing the play book for this game.

This has to be one of the most exciting ends to regular season Hockey in a long time. The emotion and physical energy exerted each night - I swear some of these teams are already in playoff mode.