Who has edge in NHL playoff bracket as regular season hits final week?
A lot remains undecided with less than a week left in the NHL regular season. Here's where things stand in the playoff bracket.
The NHL playoffs start a week from Saturday. After a rare day off on Friday, teams will have two to four games left before the April 16 end of the regular season and contenders will try to cement playoff positions. So far, the Carolina Hurricanes, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins have clinched Eastern Conference playoff spots and the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild and Utah Mammoth have clinched in the West.
Colorado and Carolina have won division titles. Five more teams have the potential to clinch berths during Saturday's 15-game schedule. Here's what is still to be decided in the final week of the regular season: Atlantic Division title The Sabres (106 points), Canadiens (104) and Lightning (102) have a shot.
Buffalo has two games left and the other teams have three. The Sabres lead in the first tiebreaker (regulation wins). The Canadiens have been the hotter team, going 9-1 in their last 10 games, while the Lightning have lost three in a row.
Third in the Metropolitan Division The top three teams in each division make the playoffs and that might be the best path for Metropolitan teams to get back into a playoff position. The New York Islanders, led by recently hired coach Peter DeBoer, are a point behind the third-place Philadelphia Flyers, compared to three points out of the second wild-card spot. The Columbus Blue Jackets are two points behind the Flyers.