With roughly two weeks to go in the NHL season, some players and teams are really hitting their stride.
Others, not so much.
With that in mind, here’s a quick look at six notable runs, both good and bad, that are helping share the final stretch around the league.
Willie ever stop?
Eight days ago, Toronto seemed to be teetering. A regulation loss to Tampa Bay on March 16 would have put the Leafs three points behind the Lightning and kept them one back of the Islanders in the search for the final playoff berth. Instead, the Leafs went out, stomped Tampa and haven’t looked back since, winning three more games and losing another in overtime. They now look good, not just for a playoff spot, but for a nice jump to the much-preferred Atlantic Division bracket.
A major force behind that success is William Nylander, who has 12 points in his past 10 games, including five in his three most recent outings.
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Boston Ruins
The Bruins collected wins in each of their first two contests during a three-game roadie through western Canada last week. Then they got blown out by the Edmonton Oilers in the final stop on that trip and haven’t won since. The B’s will be riding a four-game losing skid when they visit the New York Islanders in a critical matchup on Saturday. The Isles are just two points behind Boston for the final wild card berth and hold two games in hand.
The Bruins have missed the playoffs in excruciating fashion the past two seasons, so urgency must be at an all-time high.
"Kuch" cruising, Tampa folding
This is one instance where a player is cooking, but his team is tanking.
Tampa has won just one of its past five outings—albeit a critical 6-3 slamming of Boston on Thursday night—and is barely clinging to any playoff hope. Don’t blame Nikita Kucherov for the downturn, though; the 23-year Russian has six goals in his past three outings. The outburst gives Kucherov 37 goals on the season, a total exceeded only by Sidney Crosby’s 41.
Is it too little too late? The Bolts have nine games left and likely need to win at least seven of them to have any prayer of squeaking into the spring dance.
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Connor can, Oilers gushing
Just when the Oilers were starting to slide a bit, their 20-year-old leader turned on the jets. Connor McDavid has two goals and nine assists for 11 points in his past five outings. Four of those games were wins by the Oilers, who are now home and cooled when it comes to ending their 10-year playoff drought.
Riding shotgun alongside "McD" is Leon Draisaitl, who’s also averaging better than two points per game these days with 13 in his past half-dozen outings.
Power outage in Montreal
First, the Habs couldn’t get any secondary scoring. Then, once the support players started showing life, the top line went dark. Max Pacioretty has scored goals in just one of his past 11 outings, while Alexander Radulov has one goal in his past 15 contests.
That’s the sound of the Atlantic Division lead slipping away…
Hurricanes blowing lottery chances
There’s really nothing like the late-season hot streak when you have no real chance of making the playoffs and can only hurt your draft lottery odds.
The Canes have earned points in each of their past nine outings, largely because goal Eddie Lack—after being called out by coach Bill Peters—has a .947 save percentage in his past five games.
Well, Carolina fans, at least your team isn’t doing this in a year when McDavid or Auston Matthews are at the top of the draft table.
