Buckle up, hockey fans. Welcome to the roller coaster known as the push to the playoffs. Please keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.
The NHL season will conclude on April 17, with the playoffs beginning a few days later. As of right now, three teams have officially booked their tickets. The Washington Capitals, Dallas Stars and the Winnipeg Jets.
For the rest of the teams, it’s time to lock in. As my old hockey coach used to say, “Don’t take your foot off the gas pedal now.”
The closest races are sure to be in the wild card standings. Some days, the standings look more like the Wild West, as every night presents a new leader.
Six teams have a legitimate shot in the Eastern Conference. The Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens hold the top two spots. Ottawa has 83 points and the Canadiens have 77 points.
Ottawa last made the playoffs in 2017, going all the way to the Conference finals, where they lost in seven games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Meanwhile, the Habs last found themselves in the postseason in 2021, losing in the Stanley Cup finals to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The New York Rangers are tied with the Canadiens with 77 points and are just outside of a wild card spot due to a lower win percentage.
Fans were counting out the Rangers in late December. The Blueshirts were basement dwellers, sitting near the bottom of the NHL standings back then. However, their luck has slowly changed, thanks to some moves to bring in key players.
Further down the standings, a thin margin of error exists. Three teams are separated by one point or less, each vying for the elusive final playoff spot.
The Columbus Blue Jackets sit back with 75 points, while the New York Islanders and Detroit Redwings each have 74 points.
Much of the same can be said for the Western Conference wild card race. Four teams are in the running for the final two playoff spots.
Leading the pack are the Minnesota Wild and the St. Louis Blues. The Wild and Blues are even at 87 points each. St. Louis is riding a nine-game win streak to shoot up the standings.
If the wild card stays the same, four of the eight Central Division teams will be represented in the playoffs.
However, St. Louis and Minnesota are under siege from a pair of Canadian teams.
The Vancouver Canucks are sitting six points out of the playoffs with 81 points. Much of the season has been marked by injury and production problems, especially with Elias Pettersson and captain Quinn Hughes.
Pettersson spent most of the season being unproductive, finding himself in a rough patch, spending most of 2025 trying to find his footing.
Meanwhile, Hughes is someone Vancouver depends on for offense. He plays in the top defensive pairing most nights, missing chunks of time with injury this season. Hughes leads the team in scoring with 70 points in 59 games.
The Calgary Flames are right on Vancouver’s heels. The team has 80 points this season.
Nobody expected the Flames to be in the fight for the postseason.
In recent years, the team has traded away their veterans, giving way to a rebuild where they have added new blood to the roster. Gone are the days when the late Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm would dominate teams night after night.
This season has been a pleasant surprise. The team has bought into the collective team-first vision, creating success.
“We’ve done a lot of talking about how anybody can be a difference-maker on any given night and if you’re not prepared or ready for it, your opportunity to be that guy may pass you by,” said Calgary Head Coach Ryan Huska. “I feel like guys have grabbed hold of that. Whether we’re up or we are down we have to find a way to stay in games.”
The wild card race is set to be absolute cinema, so grab your popcorn.
