We are 12 days away from the beginning of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and questions remain about how and when many of these races will end. Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Montreal clinched berths over the weekend, but their first-round opponents are far from decided. Some playoff-chasing teams are also losing momentum.<\/p>\n
Knowing these races are far from over, here\u2019s what the playoffs would look like if they began on Monday.<\/p>\n
Eastern ConferenceTampa Bay Lightning (Atlantic 1) vs. Boston Bruins (Wild-Card 1)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even if they don\u2019t end the regular season atop the conference, the Lightning remain the favorites to represent the East<\/a> in the Stanley Cup Final. You know about Jon Cooper and his chances at the Jack Adams Award<\/a>. You know that Nikita Kucherov is charging toward both the Art Ross Trophy and the Hart Trophy, with 29 points in his last 14 games. Andrei Vasilevskiy remains a front-runner for the Vezina. We know the Lightning are good. We\u2019re just counting down the days until they play more meaningful games in search of their first playoff-series win since the 2022 Cup Final over the Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n Right now, the Lightning are on track to play the Bruins. We can\u2019t promise the series will be as explosive as their outdoor game<\/a> in early February. But we\u2019d love for it to be. Boston\u2019s successful home record would be put to the test against the Lightning in this scenario. But the Bruins do have Jeremy Swayman, who has the league\u2019s best goals-saved-above-expected rate in all situations at 28.5, to go toe-to-toe with Vasilevskiy. That\u2019s strictly between the pipes, of course, and not in a fight. In all seriousness, Boston\u2019s supporting cast alongside superstar David Pastrnak can be leaned upon for offense.<\/p>\n Remaining schedules:<\/p>\n Lightning (6 games):\u00a0at Buffalo (Monday), at Ottawa (Tuesday), at Montreal (Thursday), at Boston (Saturday), vs. Detroit (April 13), vs. New York Rangers (April 15)<\/p>\n Bruins (4 games):\u00a0at Carolina (Tuesday), vs. Tampa Bay (Saturday), at Columbus (Sunday), vs. New Jersey (April 14)<\/p>\n Buffalo Sabres (Atlantic 2) vs. Montreal Canadiens (Atlantic 3)<\/p>\n The Sabres clinched a playoff spot over the weekend but weren\u2019t too happy about their previous performance<\/a>, a loss to the Washington Capitals. The Sabres obviously want to return to their winning ways after back-to-back defeats, including a missed opportunity to clinch a playoff berth in Ottawa last Thursday. There are no gimmes in hockey, but the Sabres have winnable games coming up in their remaining five.<\/p>\n Before their loss on Sunday, the Montreal Canadiens were the hottest team in the league, and they still have a chance at the Atlantic Division title. Some are wondering about how close the Canadiens are to being Stanley Cup contenders<\/a>. And with one more goal, Cole Caufield will reach the 50-goal plateau for the first time in his career. No other Canadiens player has done it since Stephane Richer in 1990, and no Canadiens player has ever won the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals in a season. With five games left, Caufield currently sits two tallies back of the Avalanche\u2019s Nathan MacKinnon for tops in the NHL.<\/p>\n Sabres (5 games):\u00a0vs. Tampa Bay (Monday), at New York Rangers (Wednesday), vs. Columbus (Thursday), at Chicago (April 13), vs. Dallas (April 15)<\/p>\n Canadiens (5 games):\u00a0vs. Florida (Tuesday), vs. Tampa Bay (Thursday), vs. Columbus (Saturday), at New York Islanders (Sunday), at Philadelphia (April 14)<\/p>\n Carolina Hurricanes (Metro 1) vs. Ottawa Senators (Wild-Card 2)\u00a0<\/p>\n Was Sunday\u2019s matchup a first-round playoff preview? We\u2019ll know in a few days.<\/p>\n The Canes remain the best in the Eastern Conference for now, though Tampa Bay, Montreal and Buffalo are all 100-point teams within striking distance. But Carolina still has played well of late, with seven wins in its last 10 games, and can still stifle teams by suppressing opposing chances while having a top-five offense. The Canes\u2019 top-tier talent isn\u2019t as flashy as that of Montreal, Tampa Bay or even Buffalo, but they still one of the league\u2019s best rosters and can still make something out of their potential path to a conference final.<\/p>\n The Senators control their own wild-card destiny after beating the Hurricanes on Sunday, putting them back into a playoff spot. Though Ottawa just got Jake Sanderson back after injury, the team is still reeling with a handful of injuries<\/a> on the back end. But it hasn\u2019t stopped the Sens from being in playoff contention. It helps that teams such as Detroit and Columbus (who play each other Tuesday) have been stumbling in recent games.<\/p>\n Remaining schedules:<\/p>\n Hurricanes (5 games): vs. Boston (Tuesday), at Chicago (Thursday), at Utah (Saturday), at Philadelphia (April 13), at New York Islanders (April 14)<\/p>\n Senators (5 games):\u00a0vs. Tampa Bay (Tuesday), vs. Florida (Thursday), at New York Islanders (Saturday), at New Jersey Devils (April 12), vs. Toronto (April 15)<\/p>\n Pittsburgh Penguins (Metro 2) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (Metro 3)<\/p>\n The Pens are inching toward clinching a playoff spot, and it appears likely that they\u2019ll be locked into either the second or third seed in the Metropolitan, barring a disastrous end to their season. Sidney Crosby just locked up a 21st consecutive season in which he averaged a point per game. Evgeni Malkin just reached the 1,400-point plateau. And Dan Muse became the Pens\u2019 sixth head coach in team history to win 40 games in his first season.<\/p>\n The Flyers have been coming on strong, with seven wins in their last 10 games. Their latest win, in overtime over Boston, vaulted them into third place in the Metro and was the perfect way to usher in the Porter Martone era<\/a>. The Flyers need their hot surge to continue over their next five games. Philly has three road games \u2014 against the New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings and Winnipeg Jets \u2014 coming up. But if they hold up, we could get the Battle of Pennsylvania<\/a> to begin the opening round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n Remaining schedules:<\/p>\n Penguins (4 games): at New Jersey (Thursday), vs. Washington (Saturday), at Washington (Sunday), at St. Louis (April 14).<\/p>\n Flyers (5 games):\u00a0at New Jersey (Tuesday), at Detroit (Thursday), at Winnipeg (Saturday), vs. Carolina (April 13), vs. Montreal (April 14)<\/p>\n Other playoff candidates<\/p>\n New York Islanders (89 points, one behind Ottawa), Detroit Red Wings (88 points), Columbus Blue Jackets (88 points), Washington Capitals (87 points)<\/p>\n Western ConferenceColorado Avalanche (Central 1) vs. Nashville Predators (Wild-Card 2)<\/p>\n The Avs couldn\u2019t beat the St. Louis Blues on Sunday (a victory that kept alive St. Louis\u2019 faint playoff hopes), but they get to play them again on Tuesday. More importantly, the Avs remain in the driver\u2019s seat to win the Presidents\u2019 Trophy. (Not that it matters much for a team with Cup aspirations.) And Nathan MacKinnon is going head-to-head with Caufield in the league\u2019s goal-scoring race after hitting the 50-goal plateau for the second time in his career.<\/p>\n The Predators begin this week in the second wild-card spot, but with little margin for error. The Preds play the Los Angeles Kings on Monday and the winner will come out of the game with the second wild-card spot. The teams are tied on points, but the Preds hold the tiebreaker through regulation wins. San Jose isn\u2019t too far behind and could help Macklin Celebrini\u2019s MVP case by making the playoffs. And don\u2019t forget about Winnipeg and St. Louis.<\/p>\n Remaining schedules:\u00a0<\/p>\n Avalanche (6 games):\u00a0at St. Louis (Tuesday), vs. Calgary (Thursday), vs. Vegas (Saturday), at Edmonton (April 13), at Calgary (April 14), vs. Seattle (April 16)<\/p>\n Predators (6 games):\u00a0at Los Angeles (Monday), at Anaheim (Tuesday), at Utah (Thursday), vs. Minnesota (Saturday), vs. San Jose (April 13), vs. Anaheim (April 16)<\/p>\n Dallas Stars (Central 2) vs. Minnesota Wild (Central 3)<\/p>\n This matchup has been more or less locked in for weeks. However, home-ice advantage is still up for grabs between Minnesota and Dallas, with five games left for each team.<\/p>\n Dallas is four points up on the Wild, for now, but the Stars have only won three of their last 10 games. Wyatt Johnston, Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen have a combined three goals in Dallas\u2019 last five games. But the Stars, according to Dom Luszczyszyn\u2019s model, are tied with Vegas for the fourth-highest odds to reach the Cup Final. Only Tampa Bay, Colorado and Carolina have better odds. The Stars are still a formidable opponent with depth from top to bottom and will likely be favored (but not heavily) against the Wild.<\/p>\n Minnesota was on the verge of catastrophe on Sunday when its 4-1 lead evaporated against the Detroit Red Wings. And then Kirill Kaprizov completed his hat trick and pushed the Wild to a 5-4 victory. Those were stressful hours in Detroit, since the Red Wings remain outside the playoffs. But the win gave the Wild a chance to surpass the Stars with five games remaining. They\u2019ll need a win over Dallas on Thursday, in addition to victories over other playoff aspirants in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n Remaining schedules:<\/p>\n Stars (5 games): vs. Calgary (Tuesday), vs. Minnesota (Thursday), vs. New York Rangers (Saturday), at Toronto (April 13), at Buffalo (April 15).<\/p>\n Wild (5 games): vs. Seattle (Tuesday), at Dallas (Thursday), at Nashville (Saturday), at St. Louis (April 13), vs. Anaheim (April 14).<\/p>\n Edmonton Oilers (Pacific 1) vs. Utah Mammoth (Wild-Card 1)<\/p>\n This matchup is very much in flux, given that the Oilers are tied with the Anaheim Ducks for the Pacific Division lead in points. But the Oilers are heating up, even without Leon Draisaitl in their lineup. The Oilers had a five-game winning streak until they lost to Vegas on Saturday, and they\u2019ve earned seven wins in their last 10 games. How has Connor McDavid played in his last nine games without Draisaitl? He has six goals and 12 points in that span, while still holding the NHL points lead over Kucherov. Goaltending will remain in the spotlight once the Oilers reach the postseason, and it could be the key for them in the first round, regardless of who they play.<\/p>\n The Mammoth are too far down in the Central to disrupt the Wild-Stars matchup we\u2019ve been anticipating for weeks. They\u2019re basically locked into a wild-card spot. And six wins in their last 10 have kept them in the first wild-card spot above the Nashville Predators. Utah gets a test against the Oilers on Tuesday night, which could serve as a playoff preview.<\/p>\n Remaining schedules:\u00a0<\/p>\n Oilers (5 games):\u00a0at Utah (Tuesday), at San Jose (Wednesday), at Los Angeles (Saturday), vs. Colorado (April 13), vs. Vancouver (April 16)<\/p>\n Mammoth (6 games):\u00a0vs. Edmonton (Tuesday), vs. Nashville (Thursday), vs. Carolina (Saturday), at Calgary (April 12), vs. Winnipeg (April 14), vs. St. Louis (April 16)<\/p>\n Anaheim Ducks (Pacific 2) vs. Vegas Golden Knights (Pacific 3)\u00a0<\/p>\n The Pacific Division pillow fight presses on. But in recent days, we have a new team at the top.<\/p>\n The Ducks held down the division lead for some time. But a five-game winless streak now has them below the Oilers, thanks to that regulation-wins tiebreaker. (Anaheim going 8-0 in shootouts this season doesn\u2019t work in their favor here.) They need a win to stop the bleeding, in addition to getting regulars such as Cutter Gauthier, Pavel Mintyukov and Radko Gudas back in the lineup sooner than later. But they certainly look like they\u2019re fading at the worst possible time.<\/p>\n Was hiring John Tortorella the right move for Vegas? For now, it looks like it. The Golden Knights are 3-0 under their new bench boss, whose return to the league got upstaged by Pete DeBoer\u2019s hiring by the Islanders on Sunday<\/a>. After their win over the Oilers, the Golden Knights even started talking about having their swagger back. And just because Rasmus Andersson plays for a different team doesn\u2019t mean he won\u2019t stare down<\/a> Oilers fans in celebration. It bodes well for a team whose expectations remain high, even if they\u2019re coming from a weak division.<\/p>\n Remaining schedules:\u00a0<\/p>\n Ducks (5 games):\u00a0vs. Nashville (Tuesday), vs. San Jose (Thursday), vs. Vancouver (Sunday), at Minnesota (April 14), at Nashville (April 16)<\/p>\n Golden Knights (5 games): at Vancouver (Tuesday), at Seattle (Thursday), at Colorado (Saturday), vs. Winnipeg (April 13), vs. Seattle (April 15).<\/p>\n Other playoff candidates<\/p>\n Los Angeles Kings (81 points, tied with Predators on points), San Jose Sharks (79 points), Winnipeg Jets (78 points), St. Louis Blues (78 points)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are 12 days away from the beginning of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and questions remain about how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11810,30131,3297,18126,24061,16788,25519,19694,3179,17203,8194,48214,16343,9,24,55,54,6821,539,56,32760,11811,48215,8066,22230,48217,25552,1055],"class_list":{"0":"post-187123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-buffalo-sabres","11":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","12":"tag-colorado-avalanche","13":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","14":"tag-dallas-stars","15":"tag-detroit-red-wings","16":"tag-edmonton-oilers","17":"tag-los-angeles-kings","18":"tag-minnesota-wild","19":"tag-montreal-canadiens","20":"tag-nashville-predators","21":"tag-new-york","22":"tag-new-york-city","23":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","24":"tag-new-york-city-news","25":"tag-new-york-islanders","26":"tag-nhl","27":"tag-ny","28":"tag-ottawa-senators","29":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","30":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","31":"tag-san-jose-sharks","32":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","33":"tag-utah-mammoth","34":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","35":"tag-washington-capitals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}