Ovi

03/24/2025 12:51 PM

"Why not us?" is the type of playoff-season slogan we see printed on T-shirts across all sports. This year, if you happen to be the one in charge of ordering post-season swag for an Eastern Conference contender, you might consider expanding the phrase a little: "No, really, why not us?"

In hockey — with its wild bounces, hot goalies and star players only on the ice for 33 per cent of the game — upsets are a feature, not a bug. The Minnesota North Stars made the 1991 Cup final after going 27-39-14 in the regular season; the 2012 Kings not only won the Stanley Cup as the West's eighth seed, but stormed their way to it with a 16-4 post-season record; just six years ago, the St. Louis Blues took the title after occupying the league basement halfway through the regular season.

The idea anything — good or bad — can happen is part of hockey's DNA, especially come spring.

Usually that notion surfaces in the wake of some crazy underdog achievement, but it sure feels like absolutely anything is in play come playoff time for the handful of teams at the top of the Eastern Conference. While acknowledging the perils of ignoring lower seeds, it sure feels like five clubs — Washington, Carolina, Toronto, Tampa Bay and Florida — are the serious contenders to win the conference. Hold each of them up to the light and you see the potential for glory. But, more so than their counterparts in the West, the warts are there, too.

The Metropolitan's top two teams are scorching right now, with Carolina and Washington having both won nine of their past 10 games. Carolina, however, just got crushed 7-2 on Saturday by the Kings. The Hurricanes obviously made an all-in move for Mikko Rantanen this year that wound up going sideways, with the player ultimately landing in Dallas. And though they're doing just fine right now in both categories, goaltending and goal-scoring will still be large question marks come spring for this smothering club that just hasn't been able to get over the hump.

Admittedly, the ding on the Caps — basically, "Can this be real?" — is flimsy and abstract. Still, bang my line when you can name the team that came completely out of the blue to finish first overall in the conference, then steamrolled their way to the Cup. On one hand, Washington — with some big bodies up front — actually seems perfectly built for the post-season; on the other, goalies Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren each have four career playoff games to their name and the Caps haven't won a post-season round since claiming the 2018 championship.

Over in the Atlantic, the top three clubs are all having a bit of a wobble right now. The Leafs lost 5-2 to lowly Nashville on Saturday and are 4-5-1 in their past 10. Tampa was beaten twice on the weekend — Saturday in Utah, Sunday in Vegas — and is 3-4-1 in its past eight. Meanwhile, Florida required a shootout to defeat the Penguins at home on Sunday and surrendered six goals to Washington in D.C. 24 hours earlier before the game was even half over. The Cats are 3-4-0 in their past seven, so it's a bit of a turtle race right now for that Atlantic crown.

Obviously, if anyone is worthy of "Big Bad" status in the East, it's still the defending-champion Panthers. That said, they've got to be on fumes after two straight trips to the final — the first of which started from the last wild card spot — and we still don't know for sure how things will play out with Matthew Tkachuk's injury. Tampa has done a nice reset with Jake Guentzel in and Steven Stamkos out, but the Bolts haven't advanced past the first round in two years. As for Toronto, nobody needs a reminder of the baggage the Leafs will carry into the playoffs. Maybe a remodelled defence corps and goalie battery will change all that, maybe it won't.

Bottom line — even by hockey standards — it's hard to place a huge amount of faith in any of the Eastern Conference contenders. On the other side of that coin, though, a golden opportunity is just sitting there for whichever one of those five clubs that can put it all together at the right time.

Weekend Takeaways

• Obviously, the Rantanen double-swap dominated trade season talk not just in Raleigh but around the entire league. Lost in the shuffle, though, is how well Taylor Hall — who landed from Chicago in late January in the same transaction that originally delivered Rantanen from Colorado — has been playing lately for Carolina. The 2010 first-overall pick had a hat trick in the Canes' bounce-back 5-2 win in Anaheim on Sunday and Hall — after producing just two points in his first dozen games with Carolina — has nine in his past eight.

• As noted, the Canes got ruffed up 7-2 by the Kings on Saturday and L.A. kept it rolling 24 hours later with, wait for it, a 7-2 stomping of the Bruins. Hopefully, you didn't drop Quinton Byfield from your fantasy team by the start of March, when he had just 11 goals in 59 outings. Byfield scored in both Kings wins on the weekend to give him goals in eight of his past 10 games and tallies in seven straight home contests. (The Kings record for goals in consecutive home outings is 12, set by Luc Robitaille in 1989). Meanwhile, L.A. now has an incredible (and league-best) 25-3-4 domestic record and hasn't lost a 60-minute home game in 14 outings, dating back to Jan. 20. Even better, the Kings play nine of their remaining 13 games at Crypto and may yet erase the five-point gap between them and Vegas for top spot in the Pacific.

The Week Ahead

• The Capitals could deliver a big blow in the Presidents' Trophy race on Tuesday, as they visit the Jets in Manitoba. Washington — which has already locked down a playoff spot — leads Winnipeg by two points with a game in hand in the race for first overall in the NHL. Believe it or not, these two clubs are tied for the best goal-differential in the league with identical plus-76 marks. The Caps scored six times versus the Panthers on Saturday, but somehow, none of those goals came from the stick of Alex Ovechkin, who is seven goals away from establishing a new all-time goals record of 895.

Also on Tuesday, Brady Skjei — who played over 300 games with the Hurricanes — will visit Carolina for the first time as a member of the Nashville Predators.

• Two-time Cup-winner Ryan McDonagh is slated to play his 1,000^th NHL game on Thursday when the Bolts host Utah. Do the Canadiens still regret trading the guy they drafted 12^th overall in 2007 to the Rangers before he played his first NHL contest?

• The Avs and Blues have been the best teams in the West in March. They'll clash on Saturday in Denver. Also that night, we'll get our final "Battle of Alberta" of the season when the Flames visit Edmonton.

Red and White Power Rankings

1. Winnipeg Jets (48-19-4) Gabe Vilardi is in the midst of quite a cold snap, with just one goal in his past 14 outings.

2. Toronto Maple Leafs (42-25-3) The Leafs really need to grab two extremely gettable points at home versus Philly on Tuesday as they scrap it out for first place in the Atlantic. After that, Toronto heads out for its California roadie starting Thursday in San Jose.

3. Edmonton Oilers (41-24-5) No Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl? No problem, so far, as the Oilers won their first game with both nukes out of the lineup on Saturday 5-4 over the Kraken. Jeff Skinner scored for the second straight game and now has three tallies in his past two outings.

4. Ottawa Senators (37-27-5) Ottawa's next five games are against clubs currently outside the playoffs. In fact, of the Sens' 13 remaining games, only four are against squads presently holding down a post-season seat.

5. Calgary Flames (33-25-11) Standing ovation for this Calgary club, which could have fallen out of the playoff picture during a three-game trip through the New York area that began with the team on a three-game losing streak. Instead, the Flames finished off a New York/New Jersey sweep on Saturday when Jonathan Huberdeau scored a late equalizer versus the Islanders and Nazem Kadri won it in OT. Of course, Long Island guy Matt Coronato bagged a pair in the contest to register his first 20-goal season in the NHL.

6. Montreal Canadiens (33-27-9) The Habs are living dangerously — they've trailed heading into the third frame in each of their past three games — but there's no quit in this club. Montreal scored three times in just over four minutes to erase a 4-1 third-period deficit versus Colorado on Saturday before falling in a shootout.

7. Vancouver Canucks (32-26-12) Just as Elias Pettersson was heating up, he left Saturday's loss to the Rangers with an injury. We'll see what the update is as the Canucks, who are in Jersey on Monday, still have four games to go on a six-game roadie that's begun with an OTL and a regulation-time defeat.