The Waffle Watch took a couple of steps back this week with Toronto's two wins, one of them a decisive thrashing of Atlanta (like how I did that?)
One blog friend emailed me to quietly express his feelings that the Maple Leafs are going to pick it up over the second half of the season and play well enough to get out of the lottery. I still don't think they have the horses, but with Phil Kessel and Mikhail Grabovski playing like the team expected them to, they're going to put some distance between themselves and the basement dwellers. The key will be how the teams above them play in the standings.
Won't go into Boston's collapse in Montreal. That was a game they should have won, period. Plenty of blame to go around from top to bottom. But, they're still in 1st by virtue of tie-breakers. Weak, but that's reality.
They've got a tough test tonight in Pittsburgh vs. the Penguins.
Here are the picks if the season ended today (not taking the lottery into account):
1st Round
4th overall- Toronto (36 points; 16-20-4)- Completes Phil Kessel trade.
25th overall- Boston (49 points; 21-12-7) (Boston moves to 25th by virtue of third seed- NE Division lead with fewest points of division leaders even though technically lower than other teams in standings)
2nd Round
43rd overall- Minnesota (47 points;21-16-5)- Completes Chuck Kobasew trade.
55th overall- Boston
3rd Round
75th overall- Phoenix (47 points; 19-13-9) - Completes Derek Morris trade.
Boston pick traded to Florida; Completes Nathan Horton deal
4th Round
115th overall- Boston
5th Round
145th overall- Boston
6th Round
175th overall- Boston
7th Round
186th overall- Florida (conditional 36 pts; 17-17-2)- Jeff LoVecchio, Jordan Knackstedt to Panthers for Sean Zimmerman, cond. 7th
Boston pick traded to Chicago (Zach Trotman)
*(Not affiliated with the Boston Bruins or the New England Hockey Journal)
No comments:
Post a Comment