This weekend I decided to get my 2009 Stanley Cup playoff tickets. I had decided earlier in the weekend to take a look at the playoff race and this is what I found. The playoff setup seems to be really taking shape in the last week or so. We can finally see that some teams have clinched something and other teams have been eliminated. Let’s start in the Eastern Conference. Boston, Washington and New Jersey are in. This is quite a coup, especially for Washington, as they have struggled more in recent years, so making the playoffs at position #2 is an especially exciting event for them. Philadelphia, Carolina and Pittsburgh will have to mess up big-time to get bumped from the postseason. In the West, San Jose and Detroit are for sure in, but Calgary, Chicago, and Vancouver are looking very good too. It’s going to be a great postseason!

The Blackhawks may have finally got the missing piece of the puzzle when new head coach Joel Quenneville took over a few days ago. Quenneville, a seasoned and disciplined hockey coach, instantly garnered the respect of the Blackhawks players. Though his first win should have come against the St. Louis Blues Saturday, match they lost eventually in a penalty shootout, Quenneville and the Hawks pushed past the Vancouver Canucks last night 4-2. See the players’ and coach’s reactions to this win at nhl.com.

The Chicago Blackhawks stemmed their flow of continuous four game defeat by coming up with an impressive 6-3 performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets last Friday night and by beating the jackets they have put their foot on the playoff race. The Blackhawks coach Denis said that all his team members played a solid game and wanted his team to play like they did on Friday in a bid to enter into playoff race. The Chicago Blackhawks rallied to a three goal advantage in the first period itself and the Columbus team always had to fight from behind in the entire course of the game.

The Chicago goalie Patrick Lalime made 29 saves in the game and the only face saving players for the Blue Jackets were Nash, the new captain, Modin and Fritsche. The Blue Jackets are fast slipping off from the playoff race and have only won a single game of their last nine games at home. The Chicago Blackhawks at this moment are in danger of getting knocked out of the playoffs and will have to play out of their skin to enter it. The Blue Jackets have never made it to the playoffs so far in their history and there will be two more contests among these two teams in this season.

The Chicago Blackhawks recalled right wing Troy Brouwer from Rockford of the American Hockey League on Saturday. The 22-year-old Troy has 17 goals and 29 points. And the team assigned center Petri Kontiola to Rockford.

Dallas Stars 3, New York Rangers 2: Morrow’s power-play goal early in the 3rd period lifted the visiting Dallas Stars over the New York Rangers on Sunday and stretched the Stars’ winning streak to 5 matches. Despite being outshot 41-18, Dallas used a sizzling power play in order to win the 1st of a 6-game road trip that will take the team to all 5 teams in the EC’s Atlantic Division.

Anaheim Ducks 3, Los Angeles Kings 2: Kunitz and Getzlaf scored 3rd-period goals as the Anaheim Ducks rallied for a win over Los Angeles.

Vancouver Canucks 2, Chicago Blackhawks 0: Morrison scored an early goal and Luongo made twenty-seven saves to lead Vancouver over the visiting Blackhawks.

Modano had a terrible night as his Dallas Stars lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Chicago Blackhawks. Jason Williams scored his 2nd goal with only 20 seconds left and the Chicago Blackhawks snapped a 9-game losing streak in Dallas, beating the Dallas Stars 5-4 on yesterday night. The Stars scored 3 straight goals in the 3rd to erase a 3-1 deficit. Jason Williams tied the game before netting the winner to give the Blackhawks its first victory in Dallas in six years. He also beat Dallas with an overtime goal October 13.