BY: Stu Hackel

We’re heading down the home stretch of the N.H.L. regular season and the races for first over all, first place in each conference and almost every seeding in both conferences remains uncertain.

The East is a bit more settled than the West, with only three teams currently below the eighth spot having any kind of chance, and Ottawa in 11th has the slimmest hope that revolves around neither of the two teams in front of them — Florida and Buffalo — nor the eighth-place Canadiens winning hardly any more games. Of course, the way those teams are playing and the way the Sens are playing, that’s not impossible. Dave Stubbs in The Montreal Gazette writes an article with the headline, Canadiens playing like they’ve already quit.

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/20...-the-the-wire/