Goodbye Ottawa, Goodbye Toronto

By now we're all familiar with the Line-O-Death. That imaginary delineation that sits just below the 8th seed in the eastern conference - separating the playoff teams from the "sorry, thanks for playing" teams. Our beloved Rangers sat below that Line-O-Death for a few terrible days about 2 weeks ago and, let me tell you, it's much nicer up north in playoff country.

Well, there's another line that has come creeping up from the bottom. It is the Eliminated-From-Playoffs line. Over the next 3 weeks those two lines will move towards each other, like the closing jaws of defeat.

Tuesday night, those jaws closed for the season on the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators. With the Habs win yesterday, the Leafs and Senators can no longer catch them. And so, a season of struggle, of highs and lows, essentially ends for those two clubs. They still have games on the schedule, but Lord Stanleys' Cup is no longer even a faint possibility.

Farewell worthy adversaries. Better you guys than us. We will now officially remove you from the Line-O-Death Meter (in a short ceremony involving stick-tape and ice shavings).

Left in those closing jaws now are just the Sabres and the Panthers. Guys, please accept my sincere bad luck wishes the rest of the way.