With just under one week left in the regular season, the NHL playoffs are starting to shape up. We still have a few teams in both conferences that need to clinch a playoff birth, but the most part we are close to having our seeding completed.

Lets break down each conference and the seedings.

Starting with the Western Conference:

Seven teams have locked in their spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which means there is one spot left up for grabs with 3 teams fighting for it. The seven teams to have clinched playoff berth are the Vegas Golden Knights (106 points – 3 games remaining), Edmonton Oilers (103 points – 3 games remaining), Colorado Avalanche (100 points – 5 games remaining), Dallas Stars (100 points – 4 games remaining), LA Kings (100 points – 3 games remaining), Minnesota Wild (98 points – 4 games remaining), Seattle Kracken (96 points – 4 games remaining). All of these teams have clinched their spot in the playoffs, but they have not secured a seeding in the playoffs, so there is still something to fight for to finish out the regular season. There is 3 teams remaining battling it out for the last spot in the West, Winnipeg Jets (89 points – 4 games remaining), Calgary Flames (89 points – 3 games remaining), and Nashville Predators (88 points – 4 games remaining).

Looking at the remaining schedule for each team, the Jets face the Predators Saturday Night in Winnipeg, depending on who wins that game can potentially knock either team out.

Now over to the Eastern Conference:

There are 6 teams that have clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Boston Bruins (127 points – 4 games remaining). The Bruins have won the rights to the President’s Trophy as the best team in the NHL regular season. Then we have the Carolina Hurricanes (109 points – 4 games remaining), New Jersey Devils (108 points – 3 games remaining), New York Rangers (104 points -3 games remaining), Toronto Maple Leafs (103 points – 4 games remaining), and the Tampa Bay Lightning (96 points – 3 games remaining).

There are 4 teams in the Eastern Conference fighting it out for the last two spots, the Florida Panthers (89 points – 3 games remaining), New York Islanders (89 points – 3 games remaining), Pittsburgh Penguins (88 points – 3 games remaining), and the Buffalo Sabres (83 points – 5 games remaining).

The Panthers and the Penguins have been struggling as of late, I wouldn’t be shocked if the Sabres, having 5 games left in the season, and the Islanders land the last two spots in the East.

Overall, the Eastern Conference tends to be more successful that Western Conference during the regular season, The Boston Bruins have only lost 17 games this season so far, and 5 of those have been OT losses. We is pretty dam impressive if you ask me.

MY STANLEY CUP PREDICTION AS OF RIGHT NOW: BRUINS VS AVALANCHE.

Prediction subject to change*

*Photo Courtesy of Seattle Hockey*