**Florida and Buffalo are more secure in their playoff positions than Dallas and Vancouver. They're further ahead of 9th, and have fewer teams chasing them. And with the struggles of the Habs and Rags, they could easily move up too, which you wouldn't have guessed a month ago.

**After Vancouver's rally to win last night, but before the Flames had secured their theft of two points from the utterly dominant Kings, I was hearing Canuck footsteps. Looking at it a bit more this morning though... I dunno. A 4-game lead is substantial, for starters, though right now the Flames (their skaters, rather) are playing the worst hockey they have all season.

But more to the point, for me to believe that the Dys will make a major push, I'd want to see a bit more evidence that they're carrying the play. This 4-game winning streak has been 2H/2R, with 3/4 opponents being non-playoff teams, and yet they're slightly in the red on the shot clock and in Corsi. With Luongo, being even in shots means you'll be an above average team, but I don't know that it translates into a 20-8 finish or thereabouts.

**Jarome Iginla last night: worst game of the season, or worst game ever? Maybe that's the wrong gloss -- no doubt he's had games in the past where he made a couple of bad mistakes that led directly to goals against -- but I don't know that I can remember a game in which he seemed so totally irrelevant. He created nothing. Get well soon, Iggy.

**The pack around the WC playoff bubble is starting to leave some teams behind. I think I'm ready to write off the Coyotes, Blues, and Avs; the latter two because they're too far behind (with too many teams to leapfrog), and Phoenix because they're not good enough to make up the ground. I'm personally leaving the Preds in the hunt for now, as their upcoming sked seems somewhat amenable. But if you don't, then...

**There are seven teams battling for four spots, and they are separated by a total of 2 games. Tyler is probably on the right track in using the schedule to inform his crystal ball (the Wild's schedule really is hell -- in the 31 days beginning Feb.27, they play 17 games;14 of those are on the road; and 10 of those are played in B2Bs). That said, 4/7 is OK odds: if you play well over the final 3rd of the season, you have a pretty good chance of grabbing one of those spots, regardless of circumstance.