It's all about timing when it comes to entering the playoffs on the right foot.

With only 16 games left in the regular season, the Pittsburgh Penguins are picking a good time to elevate their game and make them—yet again—a force to be reckoned with as the second season approaches.

Sure, the Pens have the best group of centers in the game—but while Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jordan Staal are hitting the top of their game, the rest of the team is right behind them.

Now that the NHL is in the final quarter of the season and the trade deadline has passed, teams are who they are—and the forecast of the future is clearer. Thus, it seems logical to gaze into the crystal ball and project the final standings.

For this article, I will examine not only each playoff team's position, but also predict the number of points each finishes with and give a brief explanation why. In the next article, I will project the playoffs.

While watching the Toronto Maple Leafs game against Boston, my roommate, David West , and I started talking about Rickard Wallin, the player who does not have a role on the Toronto Maple Leafs...at least not anymore.

Rickard Wallin has put up 6 points, only one of them being a goal, in 44 games, which is not enough. Admittedly, Wallin is now a defensive forward, but last season in the Swedish Elite League, he did put up 55 points and 18 goals, which he apparently left in Farjestad.

Elliott Friedman of CBC has an intriguing couple bullet points in his latest blog . He says:

It's amazing how far the Carolina Hurricanes have come this season.

Heading into the New Year, the 'Canes were last by far in the conference and looking like an utter disaster just one year removed from their conference finals run in 2009.

After a decently successful January in which the Hurricanes went 9-5, they had pulled themselves up a bit but were no longer in position to "earn" the num.

21 year-old 6’3” 200 pound Luca Caputi, born in Toronto Ontario, will have his life-long dream realized tonight as he takes to the ice at the ACC for the first time wearing the blue and white. 

Caputi has mentioned to reporters while growing up in Toronto and playing with the Mississauga IceDogs, now the Niagara IceDogs that he had hopes of playing for the Maple Leafs, which is now reality.

The Buffalo Sabres’ special teams have been a mystery all season long.

Buffalo’s penalty kill is currently ranked fourth in the NHL at 86 percent. The Sabres’ extremely high percentage can be attributed to the fact that they have been shorthanded just 214 times this season—the third fewest penalties taken in the league.

With the second annual meeting of NHL GM’s set to convene this week, “hits to the head” are likely to feature prominently in the agenda.

Matt Cooke and Mike Richards have made recent headlines with suspect hits that have outraged fans and prompted critical response from the media.

I understand fully that NHL general managers have a responsibility to direct policy and rule changes. They have an obligation to advocate on behalf of their players.

Originally posted on Phoenix.Fanster.com.

If you’ve ever lived in an apartment, you know what it’s like to deal with the noisy neighbor above you.

Carrying on from my previous article (link) , I wrote that the Chicago game would be the first of the two stages of the litmus test, with the second being the Colorado Avalanche.