No, I Don't Want It... You Go Ahead

Well... there were four "close to must win" games played by on the bubble teams tonight. At the end of the day, two wins and two losses.

Eastern Conference

Buffalo... defeats Washington 5-4 in OT. This puts the Sabres four points back of the 8th place New York Rangers, but with Buffalo having a game in hand on New York. On the negative side, there's also the Florida Panthers to deal with in 9th place two between Buffalo and New York. Not likely the Sabres will be able to find there way in, but they certainly needed these two points to remain in the conversation.

Florida... loses to Atlanta 3-1. C'mon... Atlanta? I know they've won four in a row, but the Panthers would have pulled even with idle New York at 8th in the standings.

Western Conference

Minnesota... defeats Calgary 4-0. Similar to Buffalo, Minnesota needed this win to entertain their notion of making the playoffs. With the win, they pulled to two points behind 8th place St Louis... with 9th place Nashville between them.

Nashville... loses to Chicago 2-1. Whoops... a win over the Blackhawks would have jumped the Preds into 8th place and a playoff slot (for now). Not meant to be, though.

End result of the action was 4 games that mattered... two that were won by teams that desperately needed them and two that were lost by teams that could have put themselves in good spots with a win.

I guess desperation really does help.