| 26 |
 |
PAC | 79 | 34 | 38 | 7 | 75 | 198 | 242 | 22-14-3 | 12-24-4 | 6-3-1 | Lost 1 |
| 27 |
 |
SE | 78 | 34 | 38 | 6 | 74 | 243 | 265 | 17-19-2 | 17-19-4 | 7-3-0 | Won 4 |
| 28 |
 |
SE | 79 | 24 | 37 | 18 | 66 | 202 | 263 | 12-16-11 | 12-21-7 | 1-5-4 | Lost 6 |
| 29 |
 |
NW | 77 | 31 | 44 | 2 | 64 | 193 | 250 | 18-20-0 | 13-24-2 | 2-7-1 | Lost 8 |
| 30 |
 |
ATL | 78 | 26 | 43 | 9 | 61 | 196 | 255 | 17-16-6 | 9-27-3 | 3-6-1 | Won 1 |
The Islanders defeated the Lightning last night. A Tampa win would have gone a long way to sewing up the 29th spot, but now the Lightning remain just 2 points behind the Avs (and Colorado has 2 games in hand). The Islanders loss does keep the Avalanche in the "race" to dead last, but as I mentioned yesterday on the Hockey Night in Long Islandd radio blog show, I don't think the Avalanche will be able to make up that ground. (That episode is archived, so you still have a chance to listen to the dulcet tones of my voice).
The Lightning have 3 games remaining on their schedule: Pittsburgh, Washington and Atlanta. Atlanta is the only team not in the playoff hunt right now, but they are on a 6 game losing streak.
The Islanders have 4 games left: Carolina, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston - all 4 are playoff teams (as of today).
The Avs have 2 games left with Vancouver (including one tonight) along with stings against San Jose, Dallas and St Louis. Dallas is the only non-playoff team on the list (I believe they were eliminated last night when Nashville knocked of Columbus in a shootout.