Why finishing 2nd in the Metro might be better than 1st

So as you know, no one at this blog likes Mark Madden at all.  He's a douche.  But one thing is true.  He is very smart and he knows what he's talking about.  Recently Double M brought up an interesting point.  Finishing 2nd in the Metropolitan Division may be better than finishing 1st.  Why you may ask?  Well first lets take a look at the current standings in the Easter Conference.

In the Atlantic we have:

1. Tampa 20 pts

2. Toronto 20 pts

3. Detroit  20 pts

4. Boston 16 pts

5. Montreal 16 pts

6. Ottawa 12 pts

7. Florida 9 pts

8. Buffalo LOL

And in the Metro we have:

1. Pittsburgh 22 pts

2. Islanders 15 pts

3. Washington 14 pts

4. Rangers 12 pts

5. Carolina 11 pts

6. Lumbus 10 pts

7. New Jersey 10 pts

8. Broad Street Babies 8 pts

Ok.  There are your divisions in the Eastern Conference as of November 4th.  One thing that jumps out is that the 4th and 5th place teams in the Atlantic would be 2nd and 3rd in the Metro.  The 2nd and 3rd place teams in the Metro would be in 6th and 7th in the Atlantic.  Just shows how bad the Metro is right now minus the Penguins and we aren't even being homers hear.  Just look at the standings.  Anyways back to my original point.  Finishing 2nd in the Metro would probably be better than finishing 1st.  And here is why.  

If the Playoffs started today your playoff teams would be:

From the Atlantic

1. Tampa

2. Toronto

3. Detroit

From the Metrlol

1. Pittsburgh

2. New York Islanders

3. Washington

And the Wild Card teams would be Boston and Montreal

Now.  Here is why finishing 1st in the Metro could be bad.  It would give us the Pens a 1st round playoff match against Montreal.  Or even worse.  Should Montreal and Boston flip 4th and 5th it could be Pens/Bruins in round 1.

Here is how the 1st round of the Playoffs would fall out if the season ended today

1 Tampa vs 4 Boston

2 Toronto vs 3 Detroit (Good lord)

1 Pittsburgh vs 5 Montreal

2 New York Islanders vs 3 Washington

The number 2 team in the Metro gets the shitty number 3 team from the Metro while the number 1 team from the Metro gets a pretty good number 5 team from the Atlantic.  So.  Should the Pens finish 1st in the Metro they could be in for a rough series against any of the top 5 teams in the Atlantic.  Tampa, Detroit, Boston, Montreal or, gulp, Toronto.  Then you would have the 2 shitty Metro teams taking dumps on each other to go to the divisional finals.  Yikes.

So yeah.  The best thing to happen to any playoff from the Metro could be finishing 2nd or 3rd.

Go Pens