So you're saying there's a chance

The seventh and eighth playoff spots in the Eastern Conference are completely up for grabs.  Both the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins lost tonight and they looked bad in doing so.  The Bruins lost 4-1 to the suddenly streaking Ottawa Senators.  After a scoreless first period Ottawa took over with two second period goals by Dany Heatley and a third by Jason Spezza.  The Bruins had a golden opportunity to create some separation between themselves and Buffalo but failed to do so.

The Philadelphia Flyers looked like anything but a playoff team tonight in Toronto.  The Leafs dominated through two periods out shooting the Flyers 30-12 but trailed 2-0 on the scoreboard.  Danny Briere put the Flyers ahead 3-0 just 1:12 into the third period.  The way that Martin Biron was playing it appeared that would be enough but the Leafs kept pushing and scored three third period goals to tie the game.  The Leafs eventually scored the overtime winner and Philly came away with only one point.  Similar to the Sabres meltdown against the Flyers, this may be a game that comes back to haunt the Flyers later on.  

The Leafs pulled an interesting tactic in the game and it almost worked.  The Leafs were awarded a late power play and they pulled their goalie in an effort to get two points in regulation.  It was certainly the move of a desperate team but as Sabres fan it was gut wrenching.  I kept thinking about how pissed I would have been if the Flyers had scored and earned the two points.  While playing 6-on-4 the Leafs appeared ready to score but Jason Smith batted the puck out of the air on it's way to the net.

The Sabres are back in action tomorrow night against the Penguins and they need to get two points to try to catch up.  I'll have much more on that game tomorrow including five questions with Frank from Pensburgh.