This is going to be some race to the finish line. The Western Conference has at least three teams all interlocked in a heated battle for the final Wild Card playoff spot as the NHL playoffs grow closer and closer.
Don’t you just love to see multiple teams utterly devour each other for an 8th seeded playoff spot?
For most of the year, everyone’s been very interested in how the Eastern Conference’s playoff seeding would shape out. Yet, the West has quietly been the more interesting conference as there are currently three teams, the Calgary Flames, the Winnipeg Jets, and the Nashville Predators, all within at least 3 points of one another, trying to qualify for the same spot.
And, with only 6-8 games left for all three teams, the race to the 8th and final playoff spot has really started heating up.
The Nashville Predators have especially felt the heat lately as they sit in the worst position of the three with just 82 points accumulated in the 74 games they’ve played thus far, leaving them a full 3 points behind the Winnipeg Jets (85 PTS) with just 8 games left.
Now, I normally wouldn’t be too concerned about a team in the Preds position leapfrogging a team in the Jets position as Nashville not only has 8 games left to make up 3 points, but they’ve also played a game less than the Jets. So, if the Preds were to win their game in hand, then they’d only be 1 point behind with 7 games available for them to supplant the Jets. An easy task, right?
Well, not really as I don’t think Predators actually want to be a playoff team this year as they were sellers at the trade deadline (they traded away Nino Niederreiter, Mathias Ekholm, Tanner Jeannot, Mikeal Granlund), while they’ve also had a bad 4-5-1 record in their last 10 games.
Along with a -13-goal deferential and all of the imminent upheaval from longtime GM David Poile’s retirement, the Preds feel like a once contending team hanging onto its playoff life as that life rope slowly shrinks away into nothingness. And that’s kind of the same feeling I’m getting from the Winnipeg Jets, though for a team that never really achieved its promised heights.
It’s funny to look back now given how the Jets have missed the playoffs have won one playoff round in the last four years, but the Jets actually were a team that was supposed to go on and potentially win a Stanley Cup.
Back in 2018, this current Jets core of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Connor Hellebuyck, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Josh Morrissey, reached the West Conference Finals for the first time in both iterations (Arizona Coyotes) of the franchise’s history. They, unfortunately, lost to the Cinderella-story Vegas Golden Knights in said round 4-1, but many people (especially many Winnipeg fans) thought that run was the set up for something greater.
But, as I said, they’ve won just one round in the last three years, and actually missed the playoffs entirely last season as Scheifele, Ehlers, Wheeler, and Morrissey all had down years. Obviously, the Jets are in the best statistical position with 85 points from the 75 games they’ve played to actually be in that 8th and final Wild Card spot, but their 5-5-0 run in the last 10 games should really concern the Jets hierarchy.
Especially so given how the Calgary Flames, the final team realistically in this fight, not only are within 2 points (83 PTS) of the Jets on the same number of games played (both 75), but they also have the most momentum and roster potential of the three.
Calgary currently is on a 5-3-2 winning run over their last 10 games and have beaten the likes of the LA Kings (2nd in the Pacific), the Golden Knights (1st in the Pacific), and the Dallas Stars (2nd in the Central Division) to do so.
And, with Jonathan Huberdeau (14 G, 36 A, 50 PTS), Elias Lindholm (21 G, 42 A, 63 PTS), Nazeem Kadri (23 G, 28 A, 53 PTS), Tyler Toffoli (31 G, 36 A, 67 PTS), and Mikael Backlund (17 G, 33 A, 50 PTS) all picking up their offensive outputs to have ensured Calgary has the highest goals scored (231) among the three teams fighting, the Flames really are in the best position to win that 8th spot.
In my humble opinion, the only thing stopping the Flames from making the playoffs again is if their goaltending, which has been shaky all season long, collapses over the final stretch. But Jacob Markstrom has been clutch in certain key spots in the past, so I have faith he’ll pull the Flames through.
See what I mean when I say the West is such an interesting conference this year?
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