Like this:

…for almost every western conference team except Spokane.

From Small Thoughts at Large:

Portland and Everett clinched playoff spots last night. Well, technically they didn’t – they only clinched a tie for the last playoff spot with Seattle, and since the WHL breaks ties for 8th place with tiebreaker games and not wins or head-to-head record or anything like that, I suppose it is technically possible that one of those teams could lose all their remaining games (in regulation of course), have Seattle win all their remaining games, and then have Seattle win the tiebreaker game, thus causing Portland/Everett to miss the playoffs. I suppose it is also possible that I may be struck twice by lightning tonight while examining my winning lottery ticket.

For Portland, this is their first trip to the playoffs since 2005-06. That was so long ago that there is not a single player on their roster today who played in that postseason with them – and only two players left in the entire league (Thomas Frazee and Kurtis Mucha) who were on that last Hawks playoff team.

The Tips and Hawks join the Tri-City Americans as the three teams who have clinched playoff spots. Vancouver will be next to clinch a spot, with either one win or Seattle loss. Unless, you know, the lightning thing happens.

(Emphasis mine.)

We all know that the Chiefs will make the playoffs, but every Seattle win or Spokane loss for the next few weeks is just going to prolong the agony of not having that asterisk yet.  But wait, I’m not all Grumpy McComplaining-Pants! Just the fact that we’re having this conversation with four weeks left in the season goes to show how big the divide is between the top and bottom in the West. and it’s damn good to be in the top.

The East… erm… yeah… we’ll come back to that in a few weeks.

See you tonight!

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