NHL races still live
The NHL postseason picture remained unsettled with teams entering Monday having three or fewer games left and ten matchups on the card that carry playoff implications. (espn.com) One clear scenario from the weekend: Anaheim would clinch a berth if it beat Vancouver in any fashion, while the Washington Capitals stayed alive amid questions over whether Alex Ovechkin played his final home game. ( )
The National Hockey League playoff race reached Monday, April 13, with three berths still unsettled and only a handful of games left on every contender’s schedule. (espn.com) In the Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia Flyers held third place in the Metropolitan Division with 94 points through 80 games, followed by the Washington Capitals with 93 through 81 and the Columbus Blue Jackets with 92 through 81. Pittsburgh had already clinched a berth, and Carolina had already wrapped up the division. (espn.com) In the Western Conference, the Pacific Division’s last automatic spot was still open between the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings, who both sat on 90 points through 80 games, while the Nashville Predators held the second wild card at 87 points through 79. The Winnipeg Jets were next at 82 through 79, with Calgary at 79 through 79 and Vancouver eliminated at 75 through 80. (espn.com) That is why Sunday’s Ducks-Canucks game mattered so much: Anaheim would have clinched with any win over Vancouver on April 12. Instead, the race carried into Monday, leaving Anaheim, Los Angeles and Nashville with no room to spare. (nhl.com, (tennessean.com)) The East stayed open for a different reason. Washington beat Pittsburgh 3-0 on Sunday to stay alive, and that game also carried another question around the Capitals: whether it was Alex Ovechkin’s final home game as retirement talk followed the 40-year-old winger into the closing week. (usatoday.com, (baltimoresun.com)) The league’s format is what keeps these races so tight in mid-April. Each conference sends eight teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs: the top three in each division plus two wild cards, so a team can be in playoff position one night and outside it the next. (nhl.com) Tiebreakers add another layer in the final week. The National Hockey League first separates tied teams by regulation wins, then regulation-and-overtime wins, then total wins, which is why teams with the same point total can still control very different paths. (usatoday.com) The standings had already swung hard over the previous 48 hours. ESPN reported that Ottawa and Boston locked up the Eastern wild cards on Saturday, while Vegas and Edmonton clinched in the West, leaving only one Eastern berth and two Western berths unresolved by Sunday. (espn.com) Monday’s schedule kept the pressure on across the board, with multiple games affecting playoff qualification or seeding before the regular season ends on Thursday, April 16. By the time the puck drops this weekend on the first round, the final openings should be gone. (sportingnews.com, (usatoday.com))
