Hurricanes batter the Thrashers 6-1 to take charge of 8th place. All or nothing for the Rangers, Carolina has to lose to get a playoff place. Exactly the same situation as last year.

Rangers leading 4-2 after 2 periods, going well so far, especially after being 2-1 down.

Rangers win 5-2, they have done their job, now it's up to Tampa Bay to do us a favour and beat Carolina.

Tampa thrash Carolina 6-2 and the Rangers make the 8! Phew!

Next up though, the #1 ranked Caps. Gonna be a tough series of 7.

Chicago lose to the Wings and now need Minnesota to beat Dallas later on or the defending champs won't be defending the cup in the playoffs.I can't see Dallas losing as they've been playing well for a few weeks and the Wild will be looking forward to the beach or the golf courses instead of playing hard tonight.

Looks like our prayers were answered last night and we owe the Wild a big one for beating Dallas.

Lets hope we can start a fresh and pick up the game, Canucks is a big ask this season, still its play off hockey so anything can happen.

Big thanks to the Wild last night,they could easily have not bothered but I watched it on ESPNA and it's the best i've seen them play in a long while,if they had played like that all season they'd have been in the playoffs themselves.

May I just point out that at the start of the season I predicted a Washington/Vancouver final and both teams finished top of their conference.

Here are the playoff matchups and my predictions.

East

Washington/New York Rangers (Washington win in 6 games)
Philly/Buffalo (Philly win in 5)
Boston/Montreal (Boston win in 6)
Pittsburgh/Tampa (Tampa win in 6)

West
Vancouver/Chicago(Van win in 6)Hope i'm wrong but I think they've got more depth in scoring than the Hawks plus there's no big Buff this year to get inside Luongo's head.
San Jose/LA (SJ win in 5)
Detroit/Phoenix(Det win in 4)
Anaheim/Nashville(Anaheim win in 7)

Blackhawks to win in 6.

East

Washington/New York Rangers (Caps win in 6 games but wouldnt rule out a suprise)
Philly/Buffalo (Philly win in 5)
Boston/Montreal (Boston win in 5)
Pittsburgh/Tampa (Tampa win in 6)

West
Vancouver/Chicago(Chicago win in 5)
San Jose/LA (SJ win in 5)
Detroit/Phoenix(Det win in 6)
Anaheim/Nashville(Anaheim win in 6)

Think the Hawks can take the Canucks in 5 if I'm honest & a little hopeful, mind you the only worry is the Canucks have to win a series against us at some point. We could always use Bickell or Dowell to do the same job as Buff did last year and crashing the net a few times and rattling Luongo.

We need Bolland & Brouwer back as soon as possible as both are missed when out. Hopes are that Bolland will be okay but Brouwer still doubtful for the series but travelling so fingers crossed.

Chicago need to do what Philly did last season and come back from 3 zip down in a series after below par performances in the first 3 games against a very determined Canucks team.

Detroit are the 1st team through to the next round after sweeping the Coyotes 4-0.This could be the last game for Phoenix as there are rumours of them moving back to Winnipeg for next season,so if your a Coyotes player you could be moving from the Arizona desert to the cold weather of Manitoba.

Chicago are still in the playoffs after winning the last 2 games 7-2 and 5-0.The pressure is now on Vancouver and Luongo and if the Hawks can score 1st on sunday I can see a game 7 coming up.

Amazing game last night between Chicago and Vancouver, really hoped Chicago could pull it off

I thought Chicago was going to pull it off when they scored to take it into OT but it wasn't to be The 1st round is over and I predicted 7 out of the 8 teams that won.Here are the 2nd round games with my predictions

East
Washington/Tampa(Was win in 6)
Boston/Philly(Boston win in 7)

West
Vancouver/Nashville(Van win in 5)
Detroit/San Jose(Det win in 6)