Ducks and Kings jockeying

The Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings reached the final week still fighting over Pacific Division seeding, with first place, third place and a wild-card slot all unsettled on April 14. (nhl.com) Entering Tuesday’s games, Vegas led the Pacific with 91 points, Edmonton had 90, Anaheim had 89, Utah held the first Western wild card with 90, and Los Angeles sat in the second wild card at 87. Anaheim had three games left, while the Kings were trying to keep climbing with a four-game winning streak. (nhl.com) The Ducks’ path was simple: keep winning and they could still jump into the top three in the division, where the current third-place team would open the first round against Edmonton instead of Colorado. The Kings’ margin was thinner, because a regulation loss to Vancouver combined with points from Anaheim and Utah would lock Los Angeles into the second wild card and a series against the Avalanche. (nhl.com) That made the standings race more than a chase for a better number next to a team name. In the National Hockey League format, the division winner gets home ice in the first round, the second- and third-place teams in each division play each other, and the two wild cards can be sent to the conference’s top seeds. (nhl.com) Colorado had already clinched the Presidents’ Trophy race lead at 115 points through 79 games, making the Avalanche the West’s toughest first-round draw on paper. Edmonton and Vegas were still bunched tightly enough that Anaheim could still affect not only its own matchup, but who would host in the Pacific bracket. (nhl.com) Anaheim’s push came after a sharp jump from recent seasons. The Ducks were 42-33-6 on ESPN’s updated team page after Tuesday’s loss to Minnesota, up from 35-37-10 last season and 27-50-5 two years earlier. (espn.com) The Kings were chasing from a different angle: not a division title, but a way out of the wild-card lane. NHL.com’s April 14 playoff scenarios said Los Angeles could still gain ground even as the schedule tightened, and later that night the league’s game report said the Kings lost to Vancouver in overtime but still gained on Anaheim for third in the Pacific. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) Other late-season incentives were still live across the league. NHL.com reported on April 13 that Montreal’s Cole Caufield had 51 goals in 80 games, one behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon at 52 in 78, so even the goal-scoring race was tied to how much contenders would push their stars in the final days. (nhl.com) For Anaheim and Los Angeles, the closing math was blunt: a few points could mean home ice, a Pacific matchup, or a first-round trip to Colorado. With only days left, every scoreboard in the West started to matter at once. (nhl.com)