NHL Playoff Race Check-In: Battle Intensifies for Six Teams Vying for East Wild Cards
In the NHL’s Eastern Conference, specifically the Metropolitan Division,
the battle for a wild card can’t get much tighter than it is right now.
Adam Proteau examines the race and which two teams he thinks will make it to the playoffs.
One cannot argue that league balance has not resulted from the NHL’s wage cap system.
There are already exciting contests going on in the NHL for Stanley Cup playoff spots in some divisions,
most notably the Pacific Division in the West and the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference.
We’ll analyze the East’s postseason prospects today,
then we’ll focus on the Western Conference on Thursday.
Seven out of the eight teams in the Metro are just two points out of a postseason spot.
The only team you may declare eliminated from the postseason race is Columbus.
Six clubs are presently vying for the two wild-card spots in the East overall.
That number does not include the Toronto Maple Leafs,
who are only one point behind the Detroit Red Wings for the first wild-card slot in the Atlantic.
The New Jersey Devils,
who are ranked sixth out of six teams,
are just two points ahead of the Red Wings.
That’s as close to a boundary between success and failure as they come.
One of the two Eastern divisions has a very good chance of taking home five of the conference’s eight postseason seeds.
This is not an isolated incident; the revitalized Pacific is exhibiting a similar trend this year in the West.
Although there are no guarantees on that front,
it is quite probable that there will be a playoff fight in which the winners will be determined by the completion of the regular season.
The two wild-card berths are now held by the Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning,
but it wouldn’t surprise us in the slightest if the Devils ended up with the top spot and one of the Penguins or Capitals in the second wild-card spot.
Four of the five clubs named above will only have a painful exit following Game 82, despite the fact that all five of those teams are primed to make the playoffs this season.
That is the nature of competing in a league with thirty-two teams.
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