There are just 12 days left in the NHL’s regular season and the race for each wild-card spot is only getting tighter. Those sitting more comfortably in a post-season position still have plenty to play for as they wrestle for home-ice advantage.
Here is how the playoff picture sits on Wednesday.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
If the season ended today…
(A1) vs. 
(WC2)
(M1) vs. 
(WC1)
(A2) vs. 
(A3)
(M2) vs. 
(M3)
Here’s what the Eastern Conference standings look like today:
Who’s in?
After being on the bubble for so long mostly due to goal-scoring struggles all season, the Columbus Blue Jackets are getting hot at the right time. And though a series with the rival Pittsburgh Penguins may not be the ideal first-round matchup, the Blue Jackets could at least set themselves up for home-ice advantage.
In both of its past two trips to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 2014 and 2017, Columbus’s opening round opponent was the Penguins. Pittsburgh won both times (4-2 and 4-1) and held home-ice advantage in each as well. Now, a two-time defending Stanley Cup champion with its core of superstars healthy and intact should maybe not fear playing on the road, but as the race for this advantage heats up, it’s worth pointing out the drastic home-road splits for the Penguins this season.
| RECORD | GF/G | GA/G | SF/G | SA/G | PP% | PK% | SP% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOME | 28-8-2 | 3.66 | 2.76 | 37 | 31.6 | 26.9 | 79.5 | 0.913 |
| ROAD | 15-20-4 | 2.87 | 3.36 | 31.9 | 30.6 | 24.8 | 80.3 | 0.890 |
This trend of relatively poor play away from PPG Paints Arena isn’t going away for the Pens either. Just this month, Pittsburgh is 2-4-1 on the road, has been outscored 31-22 and dropped stinkers to the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings this past week.
So on the surface there appears to be an edge for a team that holds home-ice advantage against Pittsburgh. And though this would be the preferred route for Columbus if it lines up against the Penguins, the home-road difference in the season series between the two isn’t so wide. Pittsburgh has won all three games against Columbus this season, with a couple shootout wins on home ice in December and a 5-2 win in Columbus in February. Since that loss, the Blue Jackets have dropped just four of 17 games as the offence, led by Artemi Panarin, has suddenly started clicking.
The teams play one more time, in Columbus, next week.
What did I miss?
As the Florida Panthers nip at their heels with two games in hand, the New Jersey Devils are stepping up to every challenge and keeping as much distance as they can between themselves and the top challenger for the second wild-card spot. At the end of last week, the Devils capped off a successful road trip with a win in Pittsburgh on Friday, and turned around the very next night for a 2-1 home win against the Lightning. Amazingly, backup-turned-starter Keith Kinkaid manned the net both games.
Tuesday night was another big one for the young Devils, who couldn’t let any points escape them against the Carolina Hurricanes. And though New Jersey trailed at the midway point of the third period, it scored twice in the final minutes to get three points ahead of the Panthers, who play in Toronto Wednesday night.
The Bruins, meanwhile, had a chance to pull into first in the Atlantic with a win over the tough Winnipeg Jets, but dropped an exciting 5-4 contest on the road in a shootout. Boston, just one back of Tampa, still has a game in hand on its divisional foes.
The Bruins and Lightning play each other two more times this season: once in Boston on Thursday and again in Tampa Bay next week. Given that both the Bruins and Lightning will be favourites against whoever they meet in Round 1, those games hold a lot of meaning as the rivals seek out any advantage they can get on one another.
Fun fact:
WESTERN CONFERENCE
If the season ended today:
(C1) vs. 
(WC2)
(P1) vs. 
(WC1)
(C2) vs. 
(C3)
(P2) vs. 
(P3)
Here’s what the Western Conference standings look like today:
Who’s in?
Since our last playoff look-in on Monday, the Vegas Golden Knights made history by clinching a playoff spot with a 4-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche. Now the focus is on staving off the late charge for the Pacific Division title by a San Jose Sharks team that has been surging since the deadline with an 11-2-1 record. The teams face off in Vegas on Saturday.
Though Colorado was in a playoff spot at the beginning of Monday’s game, it isn’t on Wednesday morning, so the last home win Vegas had against a team currently in the playoffs came all the way back on Jan. 26 against Columbus. Since then the Golden Knights are 8-7-0 at T-Mobile Arena, which isn’t exactly the same ‘Vegas Flu’ advantage they had through the first half of the season.
What did I miss?
Like the Sharks, the St. Louis Blues have been on fire with a 9-3-1 record since the trade deadline and kept it rolling with a 3-2 OT win against the Sharks on Tuesday that moved them up into the first wild-card spot over the Ducks.
St. Louis’s offence, which had been sputtering most of the season after a good first quarter, has been picking up again. A 7-2 win in Los Angeles on March 10 got the ball rolling as the Blues have 32 goals in nine games, led by Alex Pietrangelo‘s 13 points in nine games, but also Vladimir Tarasenko coming to life with six goals in his past seven. The Blues’ star sniper had been struggling with a career-low shooting percentage this season, which has turned around recently as he’s now a top-16 goal-getter in the NHL. He netted the OT winner Tuesday night, the Blues’ fourth extra-time win in 11 days.
That’s some great playoff preparation.
But as the offence turns around, the MVP of this playoff push has to be goalie Jake Allen. The 27-year-old had struggled to a .904 save percentage leading into March, which lost him No. 1 duties to Carter Hutton, who has missed most of this month to injury. When Hutton went down it could easily have been the end of the Blues’ season.
But Allen has been money since stepping in with a .926 save percentage this month. Allen had just one win from Dec. 24 to March 9, but has won eight of nine since. Remember, he stole a playoff series win from Minnesota last spring and if he’s coming around again now, the Blues need to be thought of much differently than we saw them at the end of February when they were deadline sellers who shipped centre Paul Stastny to Winnipeg.
No one would be expected to beat Nashville in a first-round series, but if the Blues can hang on to the top wild-card spot and draw Vegas instead? All bets are off.
Fun fact:
If Dustin Brown scores two goals in the final five games and Tyler Toffoli gets one, LA would have three 25+ goal scorers for the first time since 2000-01 (Ziggy, Luc, Smolinski).
— Eric (@EricJFTC) March 27, 2018
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