The 2026 NHL playoff field could become set Monday night as the final three postseason spots are available for clinching. <\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, Anaheim Ducks<\/a> and Los Angeles Kings<\/a> all have scenarios to claim their postseason berths and close the door on all the other hopefuls around the league.<\/p>\n The Flyers will clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2020 with a win over the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> in any fashion Monday night. The Hurricanes do have something to play for, though, as a single point Monday will lock up the top seed in the Eastern Conference for them, setting up a battle with the second wild-card team in the first round. <\/p>\n A Flyers win would eliminate the Washington Capitals<\/a> and Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> from playoff contention.<\/p>\n The Buffalo Sabres<\/a> are still in the fight for the top seed in the East and will lock up the Atlantic Division crown with regulation win over the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> Monday and any result other than a Lightning win in regulation as Tampa Bay plays the Detroit Red Wings<\/a>.<\/p>\n A combination of scenarios could see the full Eastern playoff bracket formed, with the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> and Lightning meeting in the first round and the Flyers facing the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> in the Metropolitan. All that would be leftto be decidedin that case is whether the then-top-seeded Hurricanes face the Ottawa Senators<\/a> (currently in the second wild-card spot) or the Boston Bruins<\/a> (currently in the top wild-card spot).<\/p>\n Plenty of seeding remains up for grabs in the Western playoff picture, but the Ducks and Kings will look to close out the field on Monday.<\/p>\n The Ducks, who could still wind up as the top seed out of the Pacific Division, will clinch while idle if the San Jose Sharks<\/a> defeat the Nashville Predators<\/a> in any fashion.<\/p>\n The Kings currently sit in the final wild-card spot and book their ticket to the playoffs with a win over the Seattle Kraken<\/a> in any fashion and if the Sharks win in regulation against the Predators. <\/p>\n If the Ducks and Kings clinch Monday, the Predators, Winnipeg Jets<\/a> and Sharks will all be officially eliminated. <\/p>\n The Colorado Avalanche<\/a> have already clinched the top seed in the West, with the Dallas Stars<\/a> and Minnesota Wild<\/a> locked into a first-round battle in the Central Division. <\/p>\n The Vegas Golden Knights<\/a>, Edmonton Oilers<\/a> and Ducks all still have a chance to clinch the top seed in the Pacific, which would set up a date with the top wild-card team, currently the Utah Mammoth<\/a>, in the first round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NHL playoff field could become set Monday night as the final three postseason spots are available…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[16159,64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-604529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}