The National Hockey League regular season has 26 games left for most team. Starting tonight most teams should be in a playoff mode.

The Tampa Bay Lightning is running away with the league-best record (leading by 11 points over San Jose Sharks). There are teams that can look to next year, they are not out of it mathematically but they need to make up too many points and overtake too many teams with very little time to do it in. The Eastern Conference last playoff spot has 65 points right now with Columbus Blue Jackets and the Pittsburgh Penguins tied for that spot. So, we can count out Ottawa Senators (47 points), Detroit Red Wings (49 points), New Jersey Devils (50 points), and the Florida Panthers (54 points). Florida needs to jump five teams and 11 points to make the playoffs. They would need a long winning streak to catch teams ahead of them and Pittsburgh or Columbus go in a losing streak .Let’s look at the Eastern Conference teams that have to start thinking playoff right now.

New York Rangers (56 points) nine points out of the playoffs have a 6-3-1 record in the last ten games.Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has 2.99 goals against average leading the team which is below the league average of 2.86. Against Toronto Maple Leafs the other day Alexander Georgiev had a career high 55 saves in a 4-1 win. They also need another goal scorer as they have only two scores with more than 20 goals. Chris Kreider leads the team with 24 goals and Mika Zibanejad leads the team in assists and total points (31 assists and 54 points). The Rangers have a chance to catch teams because they play 12 games in the conference with team’s ahead of them, including three with Pittsburgh. They also have three against the Devils, two against the Red Wings, and one against the Senators.

Philadelphia Flyers (57 points), They were one of the hottest teams in the NHL, taking 19 out of 20 points until they lost to Pittsburgh on Monday 4 to 1. The Flyers have a chance to have four or five players scoring 20 goals or more led by Sean Couturier 23. Claud Giroux leads the team in assist and points (43 and 59). The Flyers have had seven different goaltenders this year. Carter Hart seems to be the guy right now and deserving so. Hart eleven wins in 18 games with a 2.48 G.A.A., and a .924 save percentage. Philadelphia has fifteen games with teams that they can still catch in their conference if they stay hot. Also, on their schedule is tonight a struggling Minnesota Wild team and then back to back with Detroit.

Buffalo Sabers (61 points) The Sabers are 4-5-1 in last ten games. The Sabers were dead last a year ago in goal scoring. They picked up Jeff Skinner in the offseason and he leads the team with 33 goals. Jack Eichel leads the team with 41 assists and 59 points. Buffalo could use another goal scorer before the trade deadline as they only have two players on pace for 20 goal seasons. Goaltending Carter Hutton leads the team with 15 wins. Buffalo plays 14 games against possible playoff conference teams. The Sabers also play two games each against the Devils, Red Wings, and the Senators.

Carolina Hurricanes (62 points), Winners of six out of the last ten games. The Canes are led by all-star Sebastian Aho with 63 points and 24 goals scored. Teuvo Teravainen is second on the team in all offensive categories (15 goals, 34 assists, 49 points), no one else is on pace for a 50-point season. Carolina goaltending has Petr Mrazek 2.73 GAA and Curtis McElhinney has a record of 13-6-1 with a .915 save percentage. The Canes play 13 games against possible conference playoffs games mostly in late March. In the next thirteen games, they play nine western conference opponents, one with Ottawa and Boston, and two with Florida.

Pittsburgh Penguins is the 2nd wild card team with 65 points. Pittsburgh has scoring power with four players all ready have over 50 points and one more at 48. Goalies they have Matt Murray and Casey DeSmith, with I believe Murray will be the starter most of the rest of the way as Pittsburgh is 16-9-1 when he is in the net. Pittsburgh could use a defenseman to help on the back end and that was even before they lose Olli Matta indefinitely. But man could you imagine a first-round matchup of Pittsburgh and the Lighting. Key matchups three against Columbus who they are tied in the division with, but behind on tiebreakers, Feb 26 at Columbus, back to back games on March 7 and 9. Pittsburgh also has two against Carolina (March 19 at Carolina, March 31).

Montreal Canadiens are the first wild card with 69 points, only two points out of second place in the Atlantic division. What an offseason the Canadians had, trading for Max Domi (17g,32a,49p), signing free agent Jonathan Drouin and trading for Tomas Tatar. Defensively the Canadians are led by goalie Carey Price who is healthy and playing well. He is getting great help by his defensemen led by Shea Weber (+16). Key dates Feb 23 at Toronto, March 2 Pittsburgh, March 24 at Carolina.

Columbus Blue Jacketsis in third place in the metropolitan with 65 points. Cam Atkinson leads the Blue Jackets with goals (31), and Artemi Panarin leads Columbus with 42 assists and 63 points. Columbus has Sergei Bobrovsky in goal with a outstanding back up of Joonas Korpisalo. The two of them have almost identical stats in save percentage and goals against average. Their key dates are the three games against Pittsburgh.

Other teams that I think will make the playoffs because it will be hard for them to fall out of the playoff picture. are second place in the metropolitan Washington Capitals (69points),  first place in metropolitan New York Islanders (72 points), third place in the Atlantic Boston Bruins (70 points), second place in the Atlantic  Toronto Maple Leafs (71 points), and first place Tampa Bay (86 points).
That’s the way I see it.
Patrick Delaney.