In February the Canes will play 11 games in 29 days, 5 home and 6 away. We end the month with a 4 game homestand over the final 11 days. Come March the pace of play radically changes. March brings 16 games in 31 days. After a 2 game continuation of the late February homestand we play 14 more times in March with 10 on the road and 4 at home. In a 26 day span there are 14 games with 5 B2Bs. 3 successive times the B2Bs are part of 3 games in 4 nights. 4 of the B2Bs and all of the 3 in 4s involve travel between games. Only twice do the Canes play teams that played the night before.

November was the month most like March with 15 games in 30 nights, with 10 at home and 5 on the road. There were 2 B2Bs and one stretch with 4 games in 6 nights. November was the beginning of the end for the Canes this season. They lost 11 of those 15 games and attained -18 of the team -30 points for all of this season pretty much flat lining our playoff chances for the season.

Given this warm, moist, odorous pile called the March NHL schedule it is probably best for our psyches that we are well out of the playoff hunt rather than hanging close by a thread of hope. I just wish it wasn't so.