Flyers and Red Wings Clinch Final Stanley Cup Playoff Berths
The Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings, and Boston Bruins battled down to the final weekend of the regular season for the last two Eastern Conference Stanley Cup playoff berths, with the Flyers and Red Wings in and the Bruins out.
Philadelphia beat Pittsburgh 3-1 on April 9th, clinching a playoff spot that they nearly let slip away. The Flyers got off to a poor start this season, but were 13-3-2 from February 25th through April 2nd to play into contention for the post season. But the Flyers then proceeded to lose three straight before beating Pittsburgh and securing a playoff berth.
The Flyers play at the New York Islanders on April 10th to close out the regular season.
Meanwhile, the Boston Bruins were eliminated after losing to Ottawa 6-1 on April 9th. The Bruins fell apart at the end of the season, closing it out with a 3-8-1 record over the final 11 games. The loss propelled the Red Wings into the post season. Detroit nearly blew its chance, losing at Boston on April 7th and at the New York Rangers on April 9th, but the Red Wings made it to the post season for a remarkable 25th straight year, the longest such streak in any of the four major sports.
In another hockey note, North Dakota beat Quinnipiac 5-1 to win the NCAA Men’s Division I hockey championship. It was the Fighting Hawks’ (formerly Fighting Sioux) eighth NCAA title. I suppose I’ll be hearing about that at work on Monday from our resident UND graduate.
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So, the playoffs will start now! Here are my thoughts on how to bet them. I think there is a balance in the East. I like packaging the three longest shots on the board (Flyers, Red Wings, NYI) to take the East. This will pay at least 3:1 (lol: go Flyers to pay 5:1) overall. In the West, I am just happy that I took Chicago and the Kings together at 5:2 instead of the Pats or Panthers in January. I would be tempted to put a little wager on Nashville for the opening series.
I guess it is go NYI! In the East .
Preds!
Quinnipiac played their second championship in four years, after coming out of basically nowhere. They seem to have built quite a program for such a relatively unknown school (think Butler, if you need an equivalent). They should be commended.
Boston, beat up by injuries, folded to the Flyers like it was 2010 (the greatest collapse ever: up 3-0 in the series, then 3-0 in game 7)
To come full circle, the Flyers are coached by Dave Hakstol who had previously coached at UND. Lol: also in 2010, the Caps were the number 1 seed in the East and lost to the 8th seed. Hmmm.
Mark: thank you for working on a Saturday night! It was great to see a post right after the game.