Well, here we are. The last game of the season. For the Red Wings, it wasn’t a terribly exciting year. Some of the young players took huge steps forward, but they never really came close to even sniffing the playoffs.

The Sabres, on the other hand, were in the mix until about the halfway mark of the season. And then their goalie fell back to Earth and the wear and tear caught up with them. It didn’t take long for them to fall back into the lottery division.

They’ve fared well against the Red Wings this season, winning two of the three games they’ve played. Detroit won the last meeting though. It was part of their latest six game winning streak.

While this game may seem unimportant, there is something on the line. These teams have identical records (32-39-10), which means they are tied in the standings. So the winner of this game will get 9.5% odds of winning the lottery for 1st overall pick on Tuesday and the loser’s odds will drop to 8.5%.

So… Go Sabres? I’m confused.

We saw in Pittsburgh what happens when this top line doesn’t produce: the team loses.

The bottom-6 right now is a mishmash of AHL and college players. I’m not sure what to make of it. Some of these players have looked pretty good down the stretch and some of them look like they should be in the AHL.

Their defense, in particular, is heavily inexperienced compared to what we’re used to seeing. I have to say, though, Jake Chelios has actually looked okay. And, of course, Joe Hicketts has looked great. He deserves to be playing consistently in the NHL.