Panthers Lose, Markström Sits

Last night, the Panthers had a chance to hop over the Montreal Canadiens and take fifth place while adding some distance between themselves and the Penguins and Rangers.

Pittsburgh had other plans, though.

After losing 4-1, Florida remains in sixth, but with New York and Pittsburgh picking up wins, the teams now share a three-way tie for the sixth spot. Florida and New York have a game in hand on Pittsburgh, although with the way the Pens have played since firing Michel Therrien, that may not matter much.

There is a gap from eighth to ninth, but it's minimal (only three points), and while the Panthers and Rangers have a game in hand over the Penguins, the Buffalo Sabres have a game in hand on the teams from New York and Florida. And unlike Florida, New York and Pittsburgh, Buffalo's on the outside looking in, and to get there, someone has to fall off.

Carolina is tied with Buffalo at 71 points, but have as many wins as the Panthers (33). The difference being the single points awarded for overtime and shootout losses.

After that, there is a bit of a drop to Toronto (65 points) and then again to Ottawa (58) and down through the last place Islanders (47).

With Philadelphia four points ahead of Montreal and with only 63 games played, it would look to be a race between six teams with only four spots available.

So on to the recap and the like, courtesy of the Panthers and NHL.com:

Recap

Individual Stats

Boxscore

Earlier in the day (yes, evening in Sweden), Brynäs opened up their quarter-final against Färjestad at home. The start was given to Anders Lindbäck, while Jacob Markström sat on the bench.

I know he's struggled lately, but with work and some other things, I fell off a bit on keeping tabs, so I've had to rely on a number of Swedish sites -- and Google's translator -- to help me out a bit. If it translated Aftonbladet's article correctly, Markström has only won one of his last ten starts.

Nevertheless, Brynäs played a close game, falling 2-0. The second goal came on an empty net, so it was closer than you'd think by looking at that.

Lindbäck stopped 20 of 21, so I don't see why he wouldn't get the start again tomorrow.

Rochester hasn't played since Sunday, but they're back in action tonight.

As for college, the playoffs are starting and I'll write some more about that this afternoon.