Weekly Atlantic Division Snapshot: 4/3 - 4/10

This is the last weekly Atlantic Division snapshot for the 2010-11 season. Most of the Atlantic is pretty much decided. The New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils are now both eliminated from the playoffs and sit fifth and fourth in the division, respectively. The New York Rangers aren't quite in the postseason, but will finish third in the Atlantic. The only possible somewhat realistic likeliness for change is at the top as the Pittsburgh Penguins do have a long shot to catch the Philadelphia Flyers in the final week of the season.

Please continue after the jump one more time to see what lies ahead for the five teams in the Atlantic Division in the final week (plus one day) of the season.

While their playoff hopes are now done and dusted into the ground, the Devils actually had the best week out of all of the Atlantic Division teams last week, finishing with a winning record. The Flyers and Islanders only won one game each; though, the Flyers' sole win could be quite crucial for this final week. The Rangers won no games; and the Penguins could have collected more points than the four they did get should they want to catch the Flyers.

The Flyers' one win last week was over Pittsburgh, winning the season series with the Pens 4-2 on top of having the better of regulation and overtime wins, 42-37 as of now. The Penguins can only get past the Flyers if they actually get more points than them. That's going to be really difficult since Philadelphia has a game in hand on Pittsburgh on top of a two point lead. Penguins fans are going to be hoping Philly drops as many of those four games as possible as well as hoping their team triumphs.

Speaking of triumph, the Rangers will need some this week. They got four games and a one-point lead on 9th place Carolina as of right now. The same Carolina that won their last three games as the Rangers lost their last two. This coming week will be dicey for them, starting this afternoon. They need points to get in the postseason, plain and simple.

A quick note about draft positions. The Islanders are a good five points behind the Devils and will likely finish behind them in the standings. They are also in the lottery, since they are one of the bottom five teams in the league. They could be overtaken by 14th place Florida and 15th place Ottawa in the coming week, so they may slip further. The Devils will likely remain where they are, which is sixth-from-last and just outside the draft lottery. They may move up a spot since 11th place Atlanta only has one more point than New Jersey, but they're pretty much locked into a top-10 draft pick.

Here's what the final week (plus one day) looks like for the Atlantic Division:

There are plenty of compelling games throughout the division. The Rangers-Flyers game today comes on in an hour and will be important for both: the Flyers to get one step closer to securing the Atlantic, the Rangers to keep ahead of Carolina. On Tuesday, the Penguins and Devils will play in a game that Pittsburgh needs to win and hope the Flyers get spoiled by Ottawa. Friday has another inter-division game the Pens must take while hoping the Flyers get spoiled by a better-team-than-Ottawa, this time the Sabres. Saturday has two inter-division games. Devils get to play Our Hated Rivals and we all hope the Rangers come into that one in a precarious spot. Nothing like spoiling a hated rival right at the end of their season. The Islanders will get to play spoiler for a second straight night as they take on Philadelphia, as Pittsburgh gets to watch en route to their away game in Atlanta.

While the Atlantic Division may be close to being locked up in where the teams are, the games aren't going to be a waste of time for anyone. Not that they should be if you're a fan of any of the teams or the sport itself. Thanks for reading either this one or any of the other snapshots from this season. This weekly feature will be back in October.