The East Playoff Bubble
With the NHL season hitting it’s mid-point, it’s time to look at who is on the playoff bubble in the Eastern Conference. Aside from the top two teams in each division, who’s in, who’s out, who has a chance, and who is falling out of the race?
THE TEAMS
As of the writing of this article, there are six teams within one point (that’s right, one point) of the wildcard spots in the East. The Flyers, Devils, Red Wings, Capitals, and Penguins all have 44 points, and Tampa Bay has 43. So what do we make of the final two wildcard spots in the East?
WHO WILL BE IN
The Penguins are being willed to the playoffs by a 36 year old Sidney Crosby, who currently has 41 points in 39 games; he may be the only reason they make their way into the playoffs. Their state rivals, the Flyers meanwhile, are surprising everyone with their play, and adding Jamie Drysdale will only help their push for the playoffs.
WHO WILL BE OUT
The Devils and Red Wings seem to be struggling to find their early season success again. The Devils have a respectable -1 goal differential, but are 5-4-1 in their last 10. Without Dougie Hamilton, and questionable goaltending, this team is going to be in tough to keep pace. The Red Wings are in a similar boat with questionable goaltending, but can score more; they have a +8 goal differential, but are similarly 5-5-0 in their last 10.
QUESTION MARKS
The Capitals and Lightning are the enigmas here, as the Lightning can never be counted out, but seem to maybe be showing the wear and tear of so many deep playoff runs, and lack of depth. Although, someone obviously forgot to tell Nikita Kucherov who is scoring his way into another playoff run, leading the league with 67 points in 40 games.
The Capitals, meanwhile, have a -23 goal differential, a struggling Alex Ovechkin, but have possibly turned a corner under new head coach Spencer Carbury. They’ve got a Stanley Cup winning goaltender in Darcy Kuemper, and it’s really hard to imagine Ovechkin staying in his scoring slump all season long.
Our prediction is that the Penguins and Flyers will end up in the playoffs, while the Red Wings, Devils, Capitals, and Lightning will fall out and miss. It would be a large failure for the Devils and Lightning, while the Red Wings and Devils would chalk it up to one more year of the rebuild.