Two weeks are left in the NHL season, and there's still much to be decided. The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the driver's seat for the Atlantic crown. Good for them. This week, they can seal it with wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. This might be what they needed to catapult them to the Stanley Cup finals finally. But don't hold your breath. The Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators getting the wildcards makes me happy. The Senators have come a long way, and the Canadiens have a fun young team, and those Canadian cities will be rocking. The Canadiens still need to finish the job.
The Dallas Stars have a chance to take the Central crown but they'll need to beat the Winnipeg Jets in regulation this week. The St. Louis Blues, winners of twelve straight, should take the first wildcard, which is very bad news for the Vegas Golden Knights. I'm not going to say this is reminiscent of the Blues team that won it all a few years ago, but It's getting closer. The Calgary Flames can still leapfrog the Minnesota Wild but not likely. The Edmonton Oilers could still get home ice against the Los Angeles Kings, but they must beat them in regulation and get some help. The Kings have a slight chance to take the Pacific crown, too.
Key Games 4/8 Toronto vs Florida, Montreal vs Detroit 4/9 Toronto vs Tampa Bay 4/10 Dallas vs Winnipeg 4/11 Montreal vs Ottawa, Calgary vs Minnesota 4/14 Los Angeles vs Edmonton
Things I like
1.Alex Ovechkin refused to break Wayne Gretzky's record on an empty net goal, which is classy but shouldn't be rewarded because any player who respects the game should not want to break a record that way. I'm glad the NHL went all out covering the chase by nationally televising all games and having an Ovi cam and Wayne Gretzky in attendance. It's a great way to capitalize on the momentum from the four-nations tournament, and this record may never be broken again. But Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews and Leon Draisaitl have the best chance to do so. Ovechkin broke the record at the top of the circle on the powerplay, of course, with a wicked shot. He wanted to give us an iconic moment, and he delivered. The NHL even put up a video of all 895 goals. Uh, who is going to watch that? Below is just the record-breaking goal.
2.Nathan MacKinnon is quietly having his third straight 100-point season and not so quietly leading the league in shots on goals. He currently has a 25-game home point streak, only ten away from his 35-game mark last season. Wayne Gretzky, of course, has the record with 40 games. MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov are probably two of the most underrated players. I know they're perennial All-Stars, but I don't feel they get enough credit.
Things I don't
1.The Vancouver Canucks should have had a better season. They didn't build off their rebound last season, which makes me believe more changes are coming. They get a slight pass from their starting goalie, who missed half the season. I won't go into much detail, but most non-playoff teams in the Eastern Conference should have been way better. And the Boston Bruins, just yikes. But I did think this would happen last season. It's still odd it was delayed a season.
Fights of the Week
Special thanks to hockeyfights.com for making this section a little easier to do.
Dylan McIlrath vs Jeffrey Viel
Almost nothing connected, but it was long, and they gave it their all.
Michael Pezzetta vs Andreas Englund
A long fight with big punches that connected.
Goats of the Week
Declan Chisholm - Minnesota Wild
Either Chisholm was trying to give the puck to his goalie, or he lost control. It certainly wasn't obvious he was trying to get Filip Gustavsson to cover it. Either way, that was a terrible turnover, which Chris Kreider buried into the net. The Rangers won in overtime.
MacKenzie Weegar's foot - Calgary Flames
A terrible way to lose a game. Dustin Wolf probably should have hugged the post more but you can't plan for bad bounces like that. Reilly Smith wins it in overtime for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Stat Line of the Week
4/01/25 Montreal 3 vs. Florida 2
| Skater | TOI | G | A | +/- | SOG | GWG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N. Suzuki | 23:30 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Nick Suzuki has improved every NHL season. He has career-highs in assists and points this season, and he's really shined with nine points in the last four games when the Canadiens really needed him. Against the Florida Panthers, Suzuki had the game-winning goal in the third period, then two days later, in a rematch, he had the game-tying goal with nine seconds left and the overtime winner. He's seven points away from becoming the first Montreal Canadien to hit 90 points since 1995-96, a mere 30 years ago.
Numbers, Numbers
-51 – Plus-minus for the Boston Bruins as they have been hammered the last few weeks, fifth worst in the NHL
3 – Players with 100 points, and four with a chance
3 – Goals a game average in the NHL, a decrease from the last three seasons
3 – Teams in the top five (Tampa Bay, Washington, Dallas) in goals for and against, I don't think that's ever happened before
22.9 – Shooting percentage for Mark Scheifele, first in the NHL
61.6 – Faceoff winning percentage for Claude Giroux, first in the NHL
Rankings
The rankings are based on how the teams are currently playing.
Top 5
- St. Louis
- Los Angeles
- Toronto
- Dallas
- Vegas
Bottom 5
- Boston
- Chicago
- Nashville
- Philadelphia
- San Jose