Nice Sunday win over Everett, Lost Weekend

First off I just want to thank everyone for donating to the Hockey Challenge. My team raised over $30,000 for the House and I'm pretty sure I reached my personal goal of $1500. I will know later this week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I look forward to Hockey Challenge 2012 and pushing the stakes up to $2000 for fundraising. My team won our game Saturday 7-6 in a very spirited contest and I helped Team Gray defeat Team Blue 4-3 in the Top Contributors game on Sunday after the Tbirds win. Thanks to the literally dozens of people for sticking around and watching Jamie Huscroft make me look silly... haha.

Back to hockey...

A very satisfying 5-1 win over Everett Friday dampened the fact that in my opinion Seattle was effectively eliminated from playoffs this weekend.

After winning in Spokane last Wednesday, Seattle had a chance to carry that momentum over to the weekend and put themselves back in the chase. But the loss in Tri-City on Friday night and the heartbreaking last second loss to Portland on Saturday effectively eliminated them and here is why.

Let's look at Seattle first.

Seattle has 9 games remaining and 55 points. Last season, teams needed 71 points to get into the playoffs. In order to get to 71 points the Tbirds would need 16 of the 18 possible points remaining. In other words... they need help.

Can they get that help? With 6 home games and 3 road games left... we'll have to assume that Seattle wins all of their home games and gets a point or two from the 3 road games. That would give them 13-14 points and leaving them with 68-69... a large task by itself.

Now can Seattle get enough help for that to even matter??

Chilliwack has 11 games remaining, 6 of them at home and one visit to Seattle. The Bruins are 5-4-0-1 in their last 10. To stay at 67 or below they would need to only get 10 points in their final 11 games. Ok... that one is doable and at least somewhat realistic. Bruins have a tough hill to climb themselves.

Kamloops. The Blazers are on fire right now winning 5 straight and getting points in 6 straight. They have only 8 game remaining though but also have 5 of those games at home. To get to 67 the Blazers need to get only 5 points in 8 games. The Blazers have Lethbridge at home, which is probably a win and a home and home with PG to end the season. Hard to imagine Kamloops not getting at least 5 points but you never know. Kelowna is better, Tri-City is better and Kelowna two more times. It isn't impossible for them to lose all of those games.

Prince George. The Cougars are in the same situation as Kamloops with 8 games remaining ad 62 points and they only have 4 home games left. They visit Seattle on March 12th. Red Deer at PG should be a loss and Spokane is going up there this weekend for two games that could both be losses. If Seattle can manage to win in regulation when PG visits on the 12th it is certainly possible that PG might only get 5 points in 8 games.

Everett. The Tips are in the best situation of this grouping. They have 63 points and they have 9 games left. Hard to imagine them only getting 4 points in 9 games though they do only have 2 home games left and 7 roadies including at Tri, at Seattle, at Spoke, at Tri again, at Portland, at Chilliwack and at Vancouver. If Everett isn't careful... they could find themselves in a tough situation down the stretch.

"So you're telling me there's a chance..."

Yes... but for any of this to mean anything Seattle has to get 13 points in their final 9 games and they'll need two of these scenarios to play out.

One this is for sure... if they want any shot at all. The games Home vs. Everett, Home vs. Chilliwack and Home vs. Prince George are all must win games. If you drop any of those games... you're pretty much done.