Hurricanes have some work to do

The Carolina Hurricanes play at the Washington Capitals tonight. They trail Washington by a point in the Southeast Division standings.

The Hurricanes need to pick up the pace or they're going to find themselves sitting out of the playoffs for the second straight year -- and they won the Stanley Cup in 2006 for crying out loud.

Currently, the Hurricanes have 56 points. Good grief, the fourth-place teams in the Atlantic and Northeast Divisions have more points than that.

If the NHL playoffs began today, the Eastern Conference seeds would look like this:

1. Ottawa (leads Northeast Division) 70 points
2. Philadelphia (leads Atlantic Division) 65
3. Washington (leads Southeast Division) 57
4. Montreal 67
5. Pittsburgh 65
6. New Jersey 64
7. N.Y. Rangers 60
8. Boston 59

On the outside looking in: Buffalo 57, Carolina 56, Atlanta 56, Florida 55, N.Y. Islanders 54, Toronto 53, Tampa Bay 51.