As of Friday morning, the surging Kings — once almost guaranteed to earn the best odds of winning the draft lottery — had closed to within two points of Tampa. The Leafs were only four points out of last overall, which made you wonder — would that bonus point, earned against the Hurricanes, negatively affect their chances for a high draft choice, what with the races as close among the cellar-dwellers as it is for an actual playoff spot.
The one thing that Leaf Nation has learned to their chagrin over the past two years is the curse of the ninth-place finish — that capacity to fall just short of the playoffs, thus missing out on a chance for a first-round, but not cashing in on a blue-chip prospect at the draft table.
How important is that ability to draft first overall, but especially in the top three? Significant, if you base it on this year's scoring race. As of Friday, five of the NHL's top-10 scorers were players chosen first overall in their respective entry drafts (that'd be Alex Ovechkin, Vincent Lecavalier, Ilya Kovalchuk, Sidney Crosby and Joe Thornton) — and a sixth, Jason Spezza went second overall behind Kovalchuk.
Race for the bottom (Globe and Mail) 
