NHL after the All-Star Break

Looking at the NHL Standings going into the All-Star break, they look like this.

Eastern Conference
1. New York Rangers - 66pts
2. Boston Bruins - 64pts
3. Washington Capitals - 55pts
4. Philadelphia Flyers - 63pts
5. Pittsburgh Penguins - 60pts
6. Ottawa Senators - 60pts
7. Florida Panthers - 55pts
8. New Jersey Devils -55pts
9. Toronto Maple Leafs - 55pts
10. Winnipeg Jets - 50pts
11. Tampa Bay Lightning - 46pts
12. Montreal Canadiens - 45pts
13. New York Islanders - 45pts
14. Buffalo Sabres - 45pts
15. Carolina Hurricanes - 45pts

Western Conference
1. Detroit Red Wings - 67pts
2. Vancouver Canucks - 64pts
3. San Jose Sharks - 60pts
4. St. Louis Blues - 65pts
5. Nashville Predators - 64pts
6. Chicago Blackhawks - 64pts
7. Los Angeles Kings - 58pts
8. Minnesota Wild - 55pts
9. Colorado Avalanche - 54pts
10. Dallas Stars - 52pts
11. Calgary Flames - 52pts
12. Phoenix Coyotes - 52pts
13. Anaheim Ducks - 43pts
14. Edmonton Oilers - 41pts
15. Columbus Blue Jackets - 32pts

Breaking down the Eastern Conference
To be honest, there's no team that's actually out of it yet. 10 points separate the 8th place team and last place team and the Atlantic Division is going to have a lot of games down the stretch to beat up on each other which may end up costing one of the four currently in playoff positioning to fall out the chase for Lord Stanley, most likely the New Jersey Devils. The Canadiens, Islanders, Sabres, and Hurricanes have an uphill road to climb, but one of them could slip into the #8 seed. I like the Rangers and Bruins to win their divisions, but Pittsburgh and Philly will make a hard push for the title, but with Philly's goaltending problems and the Penguins' inability to maintain healthy (although Letang is now back), I doubt they can maintain healthy the rest of the season. Washington is in trouble with trying to win their division this season in what has mostly been an up-and-down season along with Backstrom and Green being on the shelf and Ovie suspended. They had a great win over the Bruins before the break, but they can't expect to maintain this the rest of the season. Florida has a great team they bought this off-season and have a very good chance to win the division if they can maintain their pace. Florida, New Jersey, and Toronto are all tied with 55 pts, but likely only 1 of them will make the playoffs. Ottawa has had strong play of late from Craig Anderson and has gotten up to 6th in the rankings, but Craig Anderson is going to have to carry them for the rest of the season to get to the playoffs. (Didn't he do that a few years back with the Avalanche?) Tampa Bay ran all the way to the Conference finals on the back of Dwayne Roloson, but now they're going to have to rely on Garon if they want to get back. My eight teams to make the playoffs (in order)
1. Boston Bruins
2. New York Rangers
3. Washington Capitals
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Philadelphia Flyers
6. Florida Panthers
7. Tampa Bay Lightning
8. Ottawa Senators

Breaking down the Western Conference
The Western Conference is pretty much dominated by the central division. The Blue Jackets are definitely out, the Oilers, after Khabibulin went to crap has blown any chance of a playoff spot this season along with a ton of injuries and suspensions (Andy Sutton anyone?) They'll be a good team, but not this season. Anaheim could have a shot if their cards fall right, but four spots are going to the central division for the chase for the cup. The Red Wings are going to win the division, they have the best record at home this season (20-2-1!) and have no deficiencies on the team. The Canucks will most likely win the NW seeing as how they've always won it. The Sharks will probably win the Pacific thanks to their only challenge being the Kings who can't find a way to score goals. The Blues, Predators, and Blackhawks are ALL going to get spots because they're that damn good. I don't think the Wild will get that last spot because of up and down play by their goalies and injuries. The Kings will most likely stay in the playoffs because Justin Williams has been on fire as of late and the Kings are finally starting to score. The Flames (aka lames) just can't get their act together and the Coyotes are where they are due to Mike Smith being injured. Here's my projections for the final standings.
1. Detroit Red Wings
2. Vancouver Canucks
3. San Jose Sharks
4. Chicago Blackhawks
5. St. Louis Blues
6. Dallas Stars
7. Nashville Predators
8. Los Angeles Kings

I'll have more posts about games every night for the rest of the season that will impact the playoff standings. Also, I have to break up the Fantasy Hockey rankings because there are just too many players and I have been away for too long unfortunately.

Updates

So... I was outta the country up until MLK weekend, and then I came back and had a ton of stuff to take care of. Anyways, the NHL All-Star game is this weekend, I will have player rankings up for hockey on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Here's the final rankings on the BCS Pick'em. It was a fun thing to do and hopefully I can set up something online for people to use next time around. I'm also working on baseball rankings and I hope to put them up in Mid-March. More to come later!

Date	Game	Points	Suny	Scott	Josh	Mat
17-Dec	Gildan New Mexico Bowl: Temple vs Wyoming	0.6748	Temple	Wyoming	Temple	Temple
	Famous Idaho Bowl: Ohio vs Utah State	0.8505	Ohio	Utah State	Utah State	Utah State
	R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: San Diego State vs Louisiana-Lafayette	0.9988	San Diego State	San Diego State	San Diego State	San Diego State
20-Dec	Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl: Florida International vs Marshall	0.1323	Marshall	FIU	Marshall	FIU
21-Dec	SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl: TCU vs Louisiana Tech	3.4734	TCU	TCU	TCU	TCU
22-Dec	Maaco Bowl Las Vegas: Arizona State vs Boise State	2.5444	Boise State	Boise State	Boise State	Boise State
24-Dec	Sheraton Hawai'I Bowl: Nevada vs Southern Miss	1.6662	Southern Miss	Southern Miss	Southern Miss	Southern Miss
26-Dec	Advocare Independence Bowl: Missouri vs North Carolina	2.8138	Missouri	UNC	Missouri	Missouri
27-Dec	Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Western Michigan vs Purdue	0.1713	Purdue	Purdue	Western Michigan	Purdue
	Belk Bowl: Louisville vs NC State	1.9004	Louisville	NC State	NC State	NC State
28-Dec	Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman: Toledo vs Air Force	0.6982	Toledo	Toledo	Toledo	Toledo
	Bridgeport Education Holiday Bowl: California vs Texas	2.8996	Texas	Texas	California	Texas
29-Dec	Champs Sports Bowl: Florida State vs Notre Dame	3.6686	Florida State	Florida State	Notre Dame	Florida State
	Valero Alamo Bowl: Washington vs Baylor	3.3758	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor
30-Dec	Bell Helicopters Armed Forces Bowl: BYU vs Tulsa	2.8879	BYU	BYU	BYU	Tulsa
	New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Rutgers vs Iowa State	2.9738	Iowa State	Iowa State	Rutgers	Rutgers
	Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl: Mississippi State vs Wake Forest	1.5023	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	Mississippi State	Mississippi State
	Insight Bowl: Iowa vs Oklahoma	3.0011	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Oklahoma	Oklahoma
31-Dec	Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Texas A&M vs Northwestern	1.7092	Texas A&M	Texas A&M	Texas A&M	Texas A&M
	Hyundai Sun Bowl: Georgia Tech vs Utah	2.3571	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech	Georgia Tech
	AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Cincinnati vs Vanderbilt	2.5835	Cincinnati	Vanderbilt	Cincinnati	Cincinnati
	Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: Illinois vs UCLA	1.1939	Illinois	Illinois	Illinois	UCLA
	Chick-fil-A Bowl: Virginia vs Auburn	3.4305	Auburn	Auburn	Virginia	Auburn
2-Jan	TicketCity Bowl: Houston vs Penn State	4.496	Houston	Houston	Houston	Houston
	Outback Bowl: Michigan State vs Georgia	4.9293	Georgia	Georgia	Michigan State	Georgia
	Capital One Bowl: Nebraska vs South Carolina	4.7732	Nebraska	Nebraska	Nebraska	South Carolina
	Gator Bowl: Ohio State vs Florida	1.8848	Florida	Florida	Florida	Ohio State
	Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio: Wisconsin vs Oregon	5.4679	Wisconsin	Oregon	Wisconsin	Oregon
	Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Stanford vs Oklahoma State	5.8739	Stanford	Stanford	Stanford	Oklahoma State
3-Jan	Allstate Sugar Bowl: Michigan vs Virginia Tech	5.1869	Virginia Tech	Michigan	Michigan	Virginia Tech
4-Jan	Discover Orange Bowl: West Virginia vs Clemson	4.3243	Clemson	West Virginia	Clemson	Clemson
6-Jan	AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic: Kansas State vs Arkansas	5.5577	Arkansas	Arkansas	Arkansas	Arkansas
7-Jan	BBVA Compass Bowl: SMU vs Pittsburgh	0.7997	SMU	Pittsburgh	SMU	SMU
8-Jan	GoDaddy.com Bowl: Arkansas State vs Northern Illinois	3.1533	Arkansas State	Northern Illinois	Northern Illinois	Northern Illinois
9-Jan	Allstate BCS National Championship game: LSU vs Alabama	6.0456	Alabama	LSU	Alabama	Alabama
	Total	100	58.0611273	64.1939315	65.4771984	75.2542604
		75.254	17.1931332	11.0603289	9.77706207	0