New Headline: "Detroit Red Wings Demolish St. Louis Blues, Blues Seek Revival
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - MARCH 14: Noel Acciari #55 of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores a third period goal during an NHL game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Utah Mammoth on March 14, 2026 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, UT. (Photo by Aaron Baker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Teams had crossed the 65-game mark in the past week and are roaring towards 70 games in the 2025-26 NHL season. It’s moving fast now as the league crunches in games to catch up from the Olympic pause.
In the Eastern Conference, a high-stakes game something akin to musical chairs is developing for playoff spots. Five teams are separated by two points as of today, fighting for just four playoff spots. At the top of the conference, Carolina, Buffalo (!!
), Tampa and (for now) Montreal are above the fray due to the points they have. The race at the bottom is truly on. The Ottawa Senators are lingering back and trying to catch up, which they may well accomplish in the next few weeks, but for now the allure has been the race between the Columbus Blue Jackets trying to catch a Wild Card team from the Atlantic (Boston and Detroit), if not a Metropolitan Team in Pittsburgh or the NY Islanders.
The Blue Jackets are making progress, having gone 5-0-4 in their last nine games, including completing a 2-0-1 road trip this week. On the other side, Detroit is fading away having only won one of their last six games (1-3-2). The Penguins, for their part, have mostly been in a ‘hang on and survive’ mode lately, attempting to weather injury to Sidney Crosby, suspension to Evgeni Malkin and a nasty-strong March schedule that would be enough to make any team pause.
The results have been uneven, but the worst could be behind them — Malkin is set to be back for the next game, Crosby won’t be that far behind him, and they’ve almost made it to what could be a place to clean up in April, where the Penguins end the season with six-straight games against non-playoff opponents who could all be sputtering to the finish line in the meaningless final games of their season (Florida x2, New Jersey, Washington x2, St. Louis). The other bit of good news for the Pens — their 28 regulation wins put them in a very strong situation for the first tiebreaker against the teams they are directly competing with for a playoff spot.