Another week is in the books in the NHL season and I’ve officially hit “Buffalo Bills mode” on the season. To explain better for the people who don’t understand, that is the point in the season where I start trying to figure out some crazy mathematical scenario where my team can still make the playoffs because they are all but eliminated from the post-season.

I thought the Sabres season would be in grave danger when Scott Gomez “accidentally” injured Ryan Miller a month ago, but I still held out hope that Patrick Lalime could get the job done. After this past weekend, I have no doubt that if Miller isn’t back on the ice for Wednesday night’s game, or worst case scenario, Friday night against Toronto, the Sabres will be mathematically eliminated. Simply put, Lalime just isn’t good enough to play in goal for the long haul. If he plays the second half of a back to back stretch and that works out to about 15 games a season, that is fine, but not for an extended period of time.

I’ve been a pretty big defender of Lindy Ruff over the years, but even I have to question his judgment this past weekend. I have no doubt in my mind that the Sabres would’ve beaten Philadelphia this past Friday if Lalime even slightly resembled an NHL goalie. Considering the way Mikael Tellqvist played against Ottawa the previous game, I thought for sure he would start Saturday night against New York. But no, Lalime was back at it and the Sabres lost out on two more points.

The Sabres do have something working to their advantage though. Normally when a team would struggle as bad as Buffalo, they would already be cooked; however that isn’t quite the case. Montreal and Florida have been doing their part in losing almost every night which is keeping open that glimmer of hope. Montreal, Florida and Buffalo all have 10 games remaining in the season. Buffalo trails Florida by four points and Montreal by five for the eighth and final playoff spot. Montreal has Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Buffalo this week. Florida has Carolina, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Dallas. If, and this is a big one, Montreal and Florida continue their slide and lost those games while Buffalo wins, there you go. Considering the fact that Buffalo plays them both this week with a game against Toronto in the middle, their season is on the line this week. They must win all three or they are finished.

Anyways, that is my rant for the week and now we can get back to the NHL in general. The Bruins got a big win against New Jersey to clinch the Northeast Division; however it’s not enough to jump any spots in my rankings. The middle of the pack stayed somewhat the same while one team dropped off and one team makes their return after a brief hiatus. And with that, here are my rankings for the final full week in March.

1. Detroit Red Wings (2) – Detroit has won their last four games in a row but their grip on the number one seed has loosened a bit thanks to San Jose. This should be a pretty tight race down the stretch which will be pretty important if these two teams face each other in the Western Conference Finals.

2. San Jose Sharks (3) – The Sharks have come back around recently and control their own destiny. Both they and Detroit have an equal number of games remaining, so they are in the driver’s seat. They also have a game in hand on Boston so they look to be on course for the President’s Trophy as well.

3. New Jersey Devils (1) – The Devils split their games last week going 2-2, although one game was against Carolina and featured Kevin Weekes in net. Martin Brodeur finally passed Patrick Roy for the all time wins mark so now we can officially have the debate about whether or not he is the greatest goaltender in NHL history. Do I smell another debate with Scott?

4. Boston Bruins (4) – Boston got a big win against New Jersey yesterday, but that is their first regulation win since March 14th against the lowly Islanders. I had to fight myself in putting Boston at the four spot with two teams playing so well below them, so this is most likely their last week in this spot unless something dramatic happens this week.

5. Vancouver Canucks (5) – Vancouver got blown out at Phoenix (how does that happen?) but won their other two games last week for a 2-1 record since the last rankings. Looking at the big picture they are still 7-2-1 in their last 10 which is mighty impressive.

6. Pittsburgh Penguins (6) – Similar to Vancouver, Pittsburgh lost this weekend but finished the week with a 2-1 record to continue their impressive play. Just thinking if Pittsburgh made the Cup Finals against this year, wouldn’t it be funny to see Hossa win it for Detroit just to rub a little more salt in the wound?

7. Philadelphia Flyers (9) – Philadelphia also went 2-1 last week with their only loss coming to the mighty Red Wings. After the game last Friday, I’m fully convinced that they will need much better play from Martin Biron if they want to make another playoff run. Sometimes he is on his game, but most of the time he is just average. Hopefully in the case of my fantasy team, he plays even better this week.

8. Washington Capitals (7) – Instead of just discussing how Washington did in the previous week, I’d like to give my two cents on the A.O. goal celebration that came against Tampa Bay. Honestly, what is the big deal? We’re okay with players scoring the goal, jumping against the glass, and doing all kinds of other things to show up the other team, but we have a problem with what Ovechkin did? Really? It was all in fun. If more players consistently put up 50 goal seasons like him, maybe they would want to join in on the fun. And the nerve of Rick Tochett, who said “I think he’s a terrific player. He went down a notch in my books after that.” Oh I’m sorry Mr. Tochett, maybe if Ovechkin was involved in conspiracy and a nationwide gambling ring he would’ve gone up in your books. What…a…joke.

9. Calgary Flames (8) – The Flames split their games last week going 1-1 and have struggled somewhat recently. As a whole they are 4-6-0 in their last 10 and haven’t looked very impressive. I’m pretty confident they will turn it around sooner rather than later, but I have been wrong about these things more than once.

10. New York Rangers (12) – The Rangers went 2-1 last week and look to be in fairly good shape for the playoffs. I wouldn’t say they are a sure thing, even though their fans seem to think so. Sean Avery has fully come back into his own form with plenty of after the whistle cheap shots which made him famous in New York. It’s funny that he gets away with all those things on the ice and gets the hefty suspension for talking to the media. You got to love the consistency of the NHL sometimes.

11. Columbus Blue Jackets (13) – Columbus went 2-0 last week to continue their impressive play. As of right now, they are sitting in sixth place in the Western Conference and are only five points out of the fourth spot.

12. Carolina Hurricanes (NR) – Carolina has taken off recently going from a team on the cusp of missing the playoffs, to a team that is pushing Montreal right out. They went 3-0 last week and pushed themselves right up the conference standings. It still probably isn’t enough to catch Washington for the division, but stranger things have happened.

13. Nashville Predators (14) – Nashville lost both games last week but still gained a point in each game. They play Anaheim tomorrow night and that will be extremely important to their playoff chances. They also have San Jose, Los Angeles and Detroit this week so this could be a make or break week for the Preds.

14. Chicago Blackhawks (11) – The ‘Hawks are slipping as each week passes. They did get four out of a possible six points last week, but it still might not be enough. Columbus is nipping at their heels and they will have to play their best hockey this week to hold on. They have San Jose, New Jersey and Vancouver this week. That wouldn’t exactly fill me with confidence if I were a Chicago fan.

15. Edmonton Oilers (NR) – Edmonton is coming on strong at just the right time. They went 3-1 last week including an 8-1 shellacking of Colorado. They also have four more games this week so we’ll have a much better idea at their playoff chances come next Monday.