{"id":270577,"date":"2026-04-16T10:23:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/270577\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:23:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:23:53","slug":"whats-at-stake-for-nhl-playoff-teams-on-the-final-day-of-the-regular-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/270577\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s at stake for NHL playoff teams on the final day of the regular season?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night to win the Pacific Division \u201cpillow fight,\u201d as Connor McDavid termed it<\/a>\u00a0in March.<\/p>\n

The victory gave Vegas 95 points, the fewest to win a division since the NHL realigned to a four-division format in 2013-14. It\u2019s the Golden Knights\u2019 fifth division title in nine years, the most of any team in the NHL since they entered the league in 2017-18. They will face the wild-card Utah Mammoth in the first round.<\/p>\n

The Pacific was the final division title up for grabs, and it remains the only unsettled division entering Thursday, the final day of the regular season. The entire Eastern Conference bracket is set: Carolina vs. Ottawa, Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia, Buffalo vs. Boston and Tampa Bay vs. Montreal. In the West, things are halfway decided, as Dallas (second place in the Central Division) will face third-place Minnesota.<\/p>\n

That leaves the Pacific to finish things off. While Vegas is into the top spot, Edmonton, Anaheim, and Los Angeles all still can finish as high as second place and earn home-ice advantage in the first round, or fall to the second wild-card spot in the West (and a first-round matchup against the Central Division-winning Colorado Avalanche).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the Pacific standings look entering the final day:<\/p>\n

The Oilers hold a one-point edge over the Ducks and Kings, and have already clinched the tiebreaker over both teams thanks to their 31 regulation wins. If the Ducks and Kings tie on points, Anaheim would have the edge in regulation wins.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what each team needs on Thursday in order to finish second in the division:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Edmonton: at least one point vs. Vancouver, or losses of any kind by both Anaheim and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Anaheim: a win vs. Nashville and an Edmonton regulation loss to Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Los Angeles: a win against Calgary, an Edmonton regulation loss to Vancouver, and an Anaheim loss of any kind to Nashville.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simple for the Oilers. They just need one point against the Canucks, and earned at least one point in each of the teams\u2019 previous three meetings this season. Edmonton beat Vancouver 3-1 on Oct. 11. The Canucks won 4-3 in overtime in Vancouver on Oct. 26, and the Oilers won a 6-0 blowout in the most recent meeting, on Jan. 17.<\/p>\n

If Edmonton loses in regulation, it could fall all the way into the wild-card spot if both Anaheim and Los Angeles win.<\/p>\n

The Ducks need help from the Canucks in order to finish second, but control their own destiny to stay out of the wild-card spot, which is important considering that means a matchup with the Presidents\u2019 Trophy-winning Avalanche. Anaheim just needs to match Los Angeles\u2019 result on Thursday night to stay ahead of the Kings.<\/p>\n

The Kings can still finish as high as second, but will need plenty of help to get there. If Edmonton and Anaheim both win, the Kings are destined for a matchup with Colorado. If not, there\u2019s a real possibility that Los Angeles will face Edmonton in the first round for the fifth consecutive year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night to win the Pacific Division \u201cpillow fight,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,92,2070,1706,404,8985,8614],"class_list":{"0":"post-270577","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-colorado-avalanche","13":"tag-edmonton-oilers","14":"tag-los-angeles-kings","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-utah-mammoth","17":"tag-vegas-golden-knights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270577","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=270577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}