Colorado lost 1-0 in a shootout to San Jose Tuesday night meaning the Islanders can no longer pass them in the standings here.
With Tampa's regulation loss on Tuesday the Islanders tragic/magic number for a 30th place finish and a lottery selection that will give them a draft pick next Tuesday and an eventual choice of consensus picks John Tavares or Victor Hedman in June is now any combination of two points lost by New York or gained by Tampa Bay.
28 Colorado Avalanche 79 32 44 3 67
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29 Tampa Bay Lightning 80 24 38 18 66
30 New York Islanders 79 26 44 9 61
NYI Fan Central Comments:
For those playing the percentages next week who feel Tampa will absolutely draft Victor Hedman if they win the lottery you do want Tampa to finish 29th and have the next best percentages to gain the first overall pick so the Colorado, Tampa final standings are still very important to the Isles who can only slip back to a second overall pick if/when Tampa/Isles win/lose a combination of two points.
Of course if Tampa wins the lottery they could still do anything with the 1st pick including trade or simply select John Tavares and add him to Steve Stamkos, Vinnie LeCavalier and keep building up front but logically a franchise defender would balance last year's pick.
If Colorado finishes 29th and wins the lottery it's reasonable to speculate they could be more inclined to select John Tavares but who knows?
Having written all this any of the bottom five teams can win the lottery and select first if they beat the odds which we saw two years ago. All we know today is two more points won by Tampa, lost by Isles they will have a choice of those two players come June.
