It’s my Parting Shot to go over the situation for the final weekend of the W-H-L regular season with no first round playoff match-ups set…..
First thing I want to emphasize, what I said on Tuesday about the N-H-L holds true for the Dub – hockey’s infatuation with single points from tie games at the end of regulation time needs to end. There would still be wonderful races for post-season positioning! In fact, one team already having clinched would be life and death without those extra time losses counting as a point!!
Second thing, as is the case in the N-H-L, any ties in the standings at the end of play on Saturday or Sunday will be broken based on total wins – not how the season series between the two teams played out. And, that’s only the third tie-breaker if need be as the second one is to take away victories via shootout and going with the ROW or regulation and overtime wins total! Understand?! Good, because I’ve seen many key board warriors around the league who refuse to acknowledge that! Of course, the exception to this is two teams tied for the eighth and final playoff spot in which the team with the most wins gets to be the home team for a special one-game playoff!!
As for the present situation, only four teams know where they will finish in the standings – Edmonton will be third in the Eastern Conference and Calgary fourth while Everett will be the top seed in the Western Conference and Penticton will be second. If my idea for eliminating single points and going with straight win-loss records was adopted, Penticton and Prince George would be tied for the B-C Division lead and second seed with 42 wins each going into the weekend!
In the East, Prince Albert goes into the weekend with a two point advantage over Medicine Hat for first and second place. The Raiders finish with a home-and-home against the Bridge City Bunch while the Tigers are home-and-home with Red Deer. The Blades still have a faint hope of overtaking Brandon for fifth place, but need to sweep P-A while the Wheat Kings have to lose both games in regulation time for Saskatoon to play Calgary instead of Edmonton in the opening round. Then, there’s the three-way battle for the final two playoffs spots. Regina is currently seventh, one point ahead of Red Deer with Moose Jaw another three points back on the outside, looking in. The Pats are home-and-home with Brandon, the Rebels are home-and-home with Medicine Hat while the Warriors are home-and-home with Swift Current. Anyone of those three teams could miss the playoffs!!
Out West, Prince George is one point ahead of Kelowna in third and fourth place. The Cougars play twice in Victoria while the Memorial Cup-host Rockets are home-and-home with Penticton. Spokane and Kamloops are tied for fifth and sixth spot with seventh place Seattle holding a faint hope of catching fifth or sixth. The Thunderbirds are only a point ahead of Portland and Victoria, who are tied for eighth place – a special playoff possibly looms?! Kamloops is home-and-home with Vancouver, Spokane has a three-in-three weekend – visiting Seattle, then home to Tri-Cities and the T-Birds – Seattle also has a three-in-three with a Saturday visit to Portland sandwiching the home-and-home with the Chiefs; the Winterhawks are in Tri-Cities tomorrow before hosting Seattle while Victoria has that home-and-home with Prince George! You might need an advanced degree in math to figure it all out as the weekend rolls along!!
Finally, that team that has already clinched, thanks to a large number of extra time losses, is Kamloops in the West. They have a league-high 13 games in which they got a point in the standings, despite skating off the ice categorized as having lost the game! With 29 wins, the Blazers would be tied for sixth with Portland while Seattle and Victoria would only be one win back and one of those four teams would miss the playoffs! Again, the change to a simple wins and losses standings – as is done in baseball and basketball – is long overdue!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
