With the regular season wrapping up, fans of the NHL are looking to either celebrate or resent as their favorite team fights to be in the playoffs. In the Western Conference the Central and Pacific divisions have six clinched teams. Central with Winnipeg, Nashville, and St. Louis. and the Pacific with Calgary, San Jose, and Las Vegas. Currently the Wild Cards are Dallas and Colorado.
In the Eastern Conference, both the Metropolitan and Atlantic divisions have two cliched teams. Washington and the NY Islanders in the Metro and Tampa Bay and Boston in the Atlantic. So far, the favorites to take the last remaining spots in the East is Pittsburgh and Toronto.
The Penguins go up against the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday, April 2. The Penguins have been a power house for the last few years, winning the Stanley Cup in the 2008-09 season and back-to-back in the 2015-16 and 2016-17. Detroit is on a five-game winning streak with Dylan Larkin (Forward) leading the pack and Jimmy Howard (Goalie) guarding the net.
Toronto has had many ups and downs over the last few games, they seem to be having trouble finding their feet. They are still number three in the Atlantic division, but that means diddly-squat when it comes down to game time. Hopefully, with the return of Travis Dermott (Defensemen) the Leaf’s will be able to make that last hurdle to the playoffs.
A quick, paraphrased, break down of the NHL Playoffs to help. The NHL Playoffs starts with 16 teams. This breaks down into the top three teams from each division and four wild card
teams. Round one sees the division champion going up against a wilder card team. The teams that claimed the second and third positions of their divisions will be facing each other. The winners of the first round will then face each other to determine who will play in the conference finals. This will bring the final two teams to the Stanley Cup Championship series.
This season has been a radical change to the past with how success has been found by teams not wholly known for it. The Buffalo Sabers are known for being a stepping stone for other teams. This season they started with a strong winning streak and were initially slated to go all the way.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the Chicago Blackhawks, who won the Cup in 2010, 2013, and 2015, have not made it to the Playoffs. This is a similar story with the Montreal Canadiens. They have been a mainstay for both Playoff appearances and Stanley Cup wins, with 24 so far.
This is looking to be an exciting conclusion to the 2018-19 NHL season where it is actually anyone’s guess to the winner. We can expect to see teams put everything they have on the ice and leave no questions asked.
