NHL Review: Kings Keep Pace in West, Rangers Stayin' Alive

Tuesday night was a big one in the National Hockey League as the playoff pictures in both the Eastern and Western Conference got a little more compelling. Let’s take a look at what transpired:

Los Angeles Kings 2, Nashville Predators 0

Right now, all jockeying in the West for playoff positioning runs through the fifth, sixth and seventh place positions — and the teams battling for them are Los Angeles, Nashville and Detroit. With the Red Wings playing fantastic hockey and looking likely to overtake fifth, LA and Nashville are the likely candidates for the 6th/7th positions — and the Kings took a big step towards sixth last night.

Rookie netminder Jonathan Bernier stopped 34 shots and LW Scott Parse scored what proved to be the game-winning goal as the Kings dispatched of the Preds 2-0. Prior to this one, the Kings had lost their last four games overall and seemed to be destined for a 7th place finish in the West — but that all changed in one evening.

It was an absolutely huge win for LA and an equally tough one for the Preds. Nashville is really struggling to score goals as of late — the Predators are still fifth in the West (but saw their lead over sixth-place Detroit shrink to just one point) and have lost two of their last three, with both losses being shutouts at The Bridgestone Arena.

In Nashville’s defense, though, it has been one helluva tough March. The Preds played a whopping 17 games over the last month and emerged with an impressive 11-5-1 record (offsetting the fact their offense dried up near the end). The 11 wins also established a franchise record for most victories in a single calendar month.

New York Rangers 4, New York Islanders 3

The Blueshirts have the slimmest of chances to qualify for the NHL playoffs, but that’s not stopping them from pushing hard down the strech to get in there.

Led by the enigmatic Olli Jokinen, the Rangers dispatched of the Islanders 4-3 on Tuesday night to keep their fading postseason chances alive. Jokinen finished with a goal and an assist, making up for the offensive production lost with Ryan Callahan and Sean Avery out injured.

Sniper Marian Gaborik scored his 40th goal of the year for the Rangers (marking the second time in his career he’s hit the 40-goal plateau) while defenceman Marc Staal scored what proved to be the game-winner five minutes into the third period. As a result, the Rangers are now in 10th place in the East, four back of three teams currently tied for 6th — Philadelphia, Boston and Montreal all have 82 points — but with just six games left in their regular season. If the Rangers want to make the playoffs, they’ll have to play near perfect hockey down the strech and pray for a string of bad results from one of (if not all of) the Flyers, Habs and Bruins.

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