Some clarity came to the NHL postseason on Monday, as the Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings clinched playoff spots to set the full field of 16 teams. But there is still much to play for, as most teams still must determine their first-round opponents.<\/p>\n
By Thursday night, we\u2019ll know the entire playoff picture. For now, here\u2019s what it would look like if the playoffs began today.<\/p>\n
Eastern ConferenceBuffalo Sabres (Atlantic 1) vs. Boston Bruins (Wild-Card 1)<\/p>\n
The Sabres clinched a division championship with their victory over Chicago but cannot catch Carolina to be the top team in the Eastern Conference, so they will face the top wild-card team. A four-game win streak has boosted Buffalo\u2019s hopes of finishing the regular season strong.<\/p>\n
Boston, meanwhile, has the inside track on the first wild-card spot. That could change, however, if the Bruins drop their season finale against New Jersey and the Ottawa Senators win over the Toronto Maple Leafs to end the season. If Ottawa ties Boston on points, the Senators will jump back into the first wild-card spot because of the regulation wins tiebreaker. Tuesday night is also David Pastrnak\u2019s final chance at cracking the 100-point plateau for the fourth consecutive season.<\/p>\n
Sabres (1 game remaining): vs. Dallas (Wednesday)<\/p>\n
Bruins (1 game remaining): vs. New Jersey (Tuesday)<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning (Atlantic 2) vs. Montreal Canadiens (Atlantic 3)<\/p>\n
These teams flipped spots on Monday, as Tampa Bay moved into second place in the division with an overtime victory over Detroit.\u00a0But even if they start the first round as the road team, the Lightning have more than enough pieces to give opposing teams headaches. Nikita Kucherov also has one game left to solidify his case for the Hart Trophy.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens got Cole Caufield to the 50-goal plateau, and Nick Suzuki reached 100 points. Now, it\u2019s about trying to get home-ice advantage in at least the first round. Montreal has been hot recently, with eight wins in its last 10 games.<\/p>\n
Lightning (1 game remaining): vs. New York Rangers (Wednesday)<\/p>\n
Canadiens (1 game remaining): at Philadelphia (Tuesday)<\/p>\n
Carolina Hurricanes (Metro 1) vs. Ottawa Senators (Wild-Card 2)<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes will end the season as the Eastern Conference\u2019s top team. While the advanced numbers, team composition and coaching have been strong for the Canes, there are some questions about their goaltending. The Canes have a team save percentage of .884, tied for sixth-worst in the NHL. And that\u2019s while allowing the fewest shots per game in the league. Goaltending, as it has been in the past for Carolina, remains a question mark.<\/p>\n
The Senators are similar to the Canes in that they stifle opposing teams, generate offense, and have faced questions about their goaltending. Not as of late, however, with Linus Ullmark rocking an 11-4-1 record with a .905 save percentage in his last 16 appearances. The playoffs are a different story, of course. At least the Sens are getting healthier at an opportune time. Thomas Chabot is back from a broken arm and Brady Tkachuk is expected to be ready for the start the playoffs after leaving last Saturday\u2019s game against the Islanders early.<\/p>\n
Hurricanes (1 game remaining): at New York Islanders (Tuesday)<\/p>\n
Senators (1 game remaining): vs. Toronto (Wednesday)<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Penguins (Metro 2) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (Metro 3)<\/p>\n
For the first time in NHL history, there will not be a team from the New York tri-state area (Islanders, Rangers, Devils) in the playoffs. That will suit these Pennsylvania teams just fine. Pittsburgh has punched its ticket to the playoffs, while laughing at everybody who thought they\u2019d be first in line for the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes at the beginning of the season. We expect another lengthy list of players needing rest<\/a> in their season finale in St. Louis on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The Flyers secured a playoff spot on Monday with their eighth win in their last 11 games. They ended a five-season playoff drought after looking like their season was over coming out of the Olympic break. This matchup is now locked, with the Penguins holding home-ice advantage.<\/p>\n Penguins (1 game remaining): at St. Louis (Tuesday)<\/p>\n Flyers (1 game remaining): vs. Montreal (Tuesday)<\/p>\n Western ConferenceColorado Avalanche (Central 1) vs. Los Angeles Kings (Wild-Card 2)<\/p>\n The Avalanche have locked up the Presidents\u2019 Trophy, and will attempt end the dreaded curse<\/a> around that trophy. No Presidents\u2019 Trophy winners have lifted the Stanley Cup in the same season since the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013. Colorado will be without head coach Jared Bednar, at least one more game, after he took a puck to the face<\/a>. Nathan MacKinnon, meanwhile, has two games to fend off Cole Caufield, and maybe even Connor McDavid, in his quest for his first Maurice \u201cRocket\u201d Richard Trophy as the league\u2019s goal-scoring leader.<\/p>\n The Kings secured their fifth consecutive playoff appearance with a victory over the Seattle Kraken on Monday. They could still climb to as high as second place in the Pacific Division. Team captain Anze Kopitar is retiring after this season, but that season won\u2019t end this week.<\/p>\n Avalanche (2 games remaining): at Calgary (Tuesday), vs. Seattle (Thursday)<\/p>\n Kings (2 games remaining): at Vancouver (Tuesday), at Calgary (Thursday)<\/p>\n Dallas Stars (Central 2) vs. Minnesota Wild (Central 3)<\/p>\n This matchup has been locked in for a few days. And we know the Stars will have home-ice advantage on the Wild. The Stars are essentially playing to end the regular season on a good note, which they are doing. They extended their win streak to four games by beating Toronto on Monday.<\/p>\n The Wild are locked in third place with no hope of catching the Stars or being caught by anyone else in their division. But depending on where the Anaheim Ducks are in the standings by Tuesday, they could at least do a favor for the Kings by beating the Ducks.<\/p>\n Stars (1 game remaining): at Buffalo (Wednesday).<\/p>\n Wild (1 game remaining): vs. Anaheim (Tuesday).<\/p>\n Vegas Golden Knights (Pacific 1) vs. Utah Mammoth (Wild-Card 1)<\/p>\n The Golden Knights are 6-0-1 in their last seven games, all under new coach John Tortorella. And even then, the Golden Knights are only two points ahead of the Oilers for first place in the division.<\/p>\n The Mammoth have already clinched a playoff spot but are only one point ahead of the Kings. So, there\u2019s a world in which Utah could fall from the first wild-card spot. Utah has lost two consecutive games.<\/p>\n Golden Knights (1 game remaining): vs. Seattle (Wednesday).<\/p>\n Mammoth (2 games remaining):\u00a0vs. Winnipeg (Tuesday), vs. St. Louis (Thursday)<\/p>\n Edmonton Oilers (Pacific 2) vs. Anaheim Ducks (Pacific 3)<\/p>\n Connor McDavid was always going to stay strong for the Oilers, even as his team pressed on without injured Leon Draisaitl. McDavid has 11 goals and 20 points in his last 13 games without Draisaitl. McDavid is four goals off the pace for the goal-scoring title, currently held by MacKinnon. The Oilers still could win the Pacific Division but also can fall, since the Ducks and Kings each have two games remaining.<\/p>\n Anaheim won without playing on Monday, as the Ducks earned a playoff spot by virtue of San Jose\u2019s victory over Nashville, which eliminated the Predators from playoff contention. The surprising Ducks are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2018.<\/p>\n Oilers (1 games remaining): vs. Vancouver (Thursday)<\/p>\n Ducks (2 games remaining): at Minnesota (Tuesday), at Nashville (Thursday)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some clarity came to the NHL postseason on Monday, as the Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,2063,2064,2066,92,2069,2070,1706,4227,19606,404,26224,2067,1603,17438,8985,8614],"class_list":{"0":"post-267449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheim-headlines","11":"tag-anaheim-news","12":"tag-boston-bruins","13":"tag-buffalo-sabres","14":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","15":"tag-colorado-avalanche","16":"tag-dallas-stars","17":"tag-edmonton-oilers","18":"tag-los-angeles-kings","19":"tag-minnesota-wild","20":"tag-montreal-canadiens","21":"tag-nhl","22":"tag-ottawa-senators","23":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","24":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","25":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","26":"tag-utah-mammoth","27":"tag-vegas-golden-knights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}