TRADE DEADLINE: A very busy 2019 trade deadline has come and gone and what a busy last 6 hours it was! 61 players changed teams and several teams have been reshaped.
Question: What do Alex Radulov, Patrick Laine, Jason Spezza, Tyson Barrie, Roberto Luongo, PK Subban, Shea Weber, and Brian Boyle all have in common?
Answer: They and several other big names were all traded in the last few days...
Who will do well? Who won't? Time will tell.
PLAYOFF RACES: We have great playoff races in both conferences this season and with about 13 games left in the regular season, I think just three teams, (GIL, PAR and REK) are out of the playoff picture.
In the Canosa Conference, MIN sits atop the conference but most of the teams chasing the Norsemen have games in hand. Any slip by MIN could result in a falling back in the conference standings, even to the point where Blake may find his boys playing and not relaxing in the opening round of the CCHL playoffs.
HAM holds 2 games in hand and the Millers have 4 games over MIN. The Norsemen control their own destiny.
Six teams are all within just three points for the other three Canosa playoff spots. Of the six teams, (SUD, VEG, ISL, SPR, SIB & FNT) the Isotopes have the fewest games played and now would be a great time to string together a few wins. VIC sits behind the pack by six points and while now out of it, really needs points and fast...
In the Corfield Conference, the Loons remain the best team in the CCHL but have hit a bit of a cold stretch going just 5-5-0 in the last ten games. SEA sits in second, six pts. behind and likewise has gone a bit cold, with just 8 points in their last ten games.
The Donuts sit just 3 points behind SEA and NIA finds themselves just 1 point behind Wisborg in 4th place.
POR sits alone in 5th place 4 pts. behind NIA, but 7 pts. ahead of the sixth place Chinook, who have a slim 1 point lead over the teams right behind them.
Those two teams - Fort Erie and Dartmouth - are tied with 68 pts. and 66 games played.
Finally, 2 points behind both the Lakers and Falcons and 3 pts. behind sixth place CGY are the Dayton Musicmen.
Dayton has played the fewest games in the league, just 60 whereas most of the teams above them have played 65 games already.
If the Musicmen can put a run together for the next couple weeks, the will shoot up in the standings. So in a similar way to the Isotopes, DAY controls its destiny and after reshaping its roster by mostly moving big name players (and contracts) out the door, it remains to be seen if DAY was too impatient by moving players at the deadline or wise and pragmatic to do so...
Stay tuned, the next few weeks should be very interesting...
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