Race for wild-card spots wide open in NHL's Eastern Conference
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Two months into the NHL season and the race for wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference is wide open, with no team more than four points out of the final playoff position.
The nose-diving New York Rangers, with just two wins in their past 10 games, are clinging to the second wild-card spot with 29 points. The Tampa Bay Lightning, who have two games in hand on the Rangers, hold the top wild-card spot with 30 points.
Sitting last in the Eastern Conference, the Montreal Canadiens are just four points back of the Rangers with one more game played, with the playoffs far from out of reach after opening the season 4-9-2 before levelling out to their current 11-14-3.
Between the Canadiens and the Rangers are the New York Islanders (tied with the Rangers at 29 points with two more games played), the Philadelphia Flyers (28 points), the Pittsburgh Penguins (28 points), Columbus Blue Jackets (27 points) and the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres, all of whom have 26 points.
By comparison, in the Western Conference, the last-place Nashville Predators are 12 points back of the Colorado Avalanche for the final wild-card spot.
The Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy last season, going 55-23-4. The team started this season 12-4-1 before falling off to 14-12-1 after a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. With the field now catching up in the standings, the Blueshirts appear to be feeling the pressure.
“I believe the second and third period, the effort dipped from where it was in the first period and the execution was worse,” Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said after the latest loss. “The execution was off all night. Could be fatigue, could be mental, could be anything, regardless, it’s unacceptable. We have to be better than that, but we are not going to win hockey games if we can’t execute.”
“Every game is frustrating, especially right now,” forward Will Cuylle added. “We need to win games and we’re not doing that. It’s frustrating today, it will be frustrating when we wake up tomorrow. Our execution and speed wasn’t really there, we needed to keep it simple at times and we are trying to do too much.”
Amid the Rangers slump, multiple teams have missed out on a chance to jump into a playoff spot with struggles of their own. The Islanders and Flyers are both 4-4-2 in their past 10 games, while the Penguins have closed the gap with a 6-3-1 record in their past 10.
The Sabres are winless in their last seven games, picking up just three of a possible 14 points.
“I think we need to look at it straight in the face, honestly,” Sabres forward Jason Zucker said after a 6-5 shootout loss to the Red Wings on Monday. “I think we need to know that it’s seven in a row. We need to look in the mirror and go get after it. There’s no reason to sit here and be like ‘Oh, we’re doing this.’ We’ve lost seven in a row.
“We’re not playing well. We’ve got to, again, look in the mirror and understand where we’re at and at what point in the season we’re at here. We have a few games before Christmas. We’ve got to have a little bit more urgency, and we got to attack these games and end this right now.”
Detroit's win over Buffalo on Monday ended a five-game skid of their own and clearly buoyed the team's locker room amid their quest to end an eight-year playoff drought.
“Really needed,” Defenceman Moritz Seider said of the victory. “Obviously, a lot of highs, a lot of lows in the game. We were always in the battle and came up with a great win.”
A new team will likely sit in the final wild-card spot after Tuesday's games with all three teams who could jump the Rangers in action. The Islanders are hosting the Los Angeles Kings, the Flyers are on the road against the Blue Jackets and the Penguins are hosting the Colorado Avalanche.
Tampa Bay, who have played a Conference-low 25 games, will look for added breathing room in the wild-card race and to gain on the Boston Bruins (33 points with 29 games) on the road against the Edmonton Oilers.