Even with the easy schedule we're at 2.2% chance now. I saw our team come out flat and go down 5-1 to an awful awful tanking team playing a back-to-back game. Ok, they collapsed and we did come back to win. But I'm not going to get too carried away thinking our team can beat the odds and make the playoffs.
But given this draft is really only going to move the needle if we get a #1C candidate - i.e. picking in the top-5 - I'm pretty comfortable predicting we're not bad enough to get that high a pick, and nor will our braintrust in any way invest in trying to improve our chances of getting a higher pick. So, I would write that possibility off just as readily as I write off our possibility of making the playoffs.
Where does that leave us? Picking 7th or 9th or 13th... I don't think any of those spots really matters much for our long-term outlook. So, forget the draft. In which case... win, set a good tone, a good vibe for next season, I guess. As long as we keep playing Svechkov, Novak, ZLH, maybe boost up Annunen's starts a bit along the way too. And don't shy away from taking any asset-maximizing returns on irrelevant veterans at the TDL (Nyquist, Lauzon, Sissons, Schenn etc). Then it's all good. Win as many games as possible, get some positivity back, lock Bruno in for another year, pick 11th, so be it. Maybe we can still set ourselves up a little better for next season if we end this one on a less gloomy note.