Penguins Playoff Watch: Magic Number 8, Tom Wilson Buries Flyers

The Pittsburgh Penguins may have to earn their way into the NHL playoffs because they’re certainly didn’t get any help from teams around the league this weekend. The Penguins magic number dropped to eight points after their win over Dallas on Saturday, but Carolina kept winning and Columbus won, as well. So the magic number remained eight.

By the way–in case you missed it this weekend, PHN scooped the competition: Evgeni Malkin resumed skating Saturday morning (Pittsburgh Hockey Now)

Columbus is playing without captain Nick Foligno who is dealing with a family emergency and their top scorers including Cam Atkinson have been colder than side-eye from an ex. But CBJ trounced Vancouver on Sunday night (Yahoo Sports)

Columbus is just two points behind Montreal with a game in hand. Columbus also trails the Penguins by seven points with a game in hand.

The Philadelphia Flyers have not been much help to the Penguins cause. Saturday, the Flyers lost to the New York Islanders and Sunday the Flyers couldn’t beat the Washington Capitals, who now lead the Penguins by three points for the Metro Division lead.

After speaking with Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson a couple of weeks ago, I can tell you he is honest, articulate and probably going to give an opponent some meaty bulletin board material in the playoffs.

Wilson couldn’t help but admit it was nice to essentially end the Flyers playoff chances (RMB)

Sunday, New York Islanders shutout Arizona 2-0 and lead the Penguins by two points for second place in the Metro. However, Islanders coach Barry Trotz still had to beg fans–Don’t boo our power play, please (NY Post)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: The Carolina Hurricanes trailed but scored a late game-tying goal and won in overtime. This time they did it to Montreal (Raleigh News and Observer)

Sorry, I don’t know which celebration they used or how long it took to plan it out.

Believe it or not: The Montreal media had a positive spin after the loss. Apparently, an underdog which wasn’t supposed to get this far is getting some slack, even in Montreal (Sportsnet)

In the Western Conference, Chicago won’t go gently in that good night. They beat Colorado on Sunday though Colorado extended their wild-card lead over Arizona and Minnesota  (Mile High Hockey)