The Top Storylines to Follow in Final Days of the 2013-14 NHL Season
As the 2013-14 NHL regular season enters its final weekend, it's a good time to take stock of the season and start looking toward the playoffs.
The individual statistical races are locked up. Sidney Crosby has a 16-point lead over Ryan Getzlaf for the NHL scoring title and will be the only player to break 100 points this year, while Alex Ovechkin has already hit 50 goals and will take home his fourth Maurice Richard Trophy at the NHL Awards in June.
Looking at the playoff race, 15 teams have clinched their postseason berths, and the Dallas Stars have a chance to round out the pack on Friday.
Still, there are plenty of questions marks surrounding the end of the season. Teams continue to fight for playoff positioning in both conferences, and we'll soon find out which teams have done the best job of preparing for the postseason.
Among the non-playoff teams, winds of change have started to blow with new front-office hirings recently being announced. Speculation runs rampant about which coaches and managers will be set free in the coming weeks and months.
Here's a look at the top NHL storylines that you should be following as the regular season winds to a close.
All stats current through Thursday, April 10, courtesy of NHL.com.
Will Last Year's Finalists Dominate Again?
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The Chicago Blackhawks had a storybook season last year.
They led the NHL standings from wire to wire, set a record for consecutive wins and capped it off with a Stanley Cup.
The Hawks have had a bumpier ride this season. They'll finish third in the Central Division behind Colorado and St. Louis. More importantly, they're going into the playoffs with health questions surrounding their most important forwards, captain Jonathan Toews and last year's Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Patrick Kane. Without their stars, Chicago has won its last four games heading into the final weekend of the season and looks prepared for what the playoffs will bring.
Meanwhile, after falling to the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final last season, the Boston Bruins have spent this season asserting themselves as the class of the Eastern Conference. Offseason changes appear to have made the Bruins an even stronger, deeper team. Boston could very well make its third appearance in four seasons in the finals this June.
Who's Back in the Playoff Hunt?
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After making the playoffs in 2012-13, the Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Washington Capitals, Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders will all be on the sidelines this year.
The Eastern Conference will see four new faces in this season's race: the recent Western Conference converts from Detroit and Columbus as well as the Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers.
The Red Wings reached the second round in the West last season, while it's been five years since the Blue Jackets' only playoff appearance in franchise history, back in 2008-09. Tampa Bay is back after two years away, and Philadelphia has rebounded after just one season out of contention.
Detroit's departure to the East has left two holes on the Western Conference side this year. The Colorado Avalanche have filled one of them after four years out of the playoffs, while the Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars are still battling it out for the final wild-card spot.
Can Colorado Go from Worst to First?
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It's an amazing success story that other teams are already trying to replicate.
After four seasons out of the playoffs and a last-place finish in the Western Conference in 2012-13, the Colorado Avalanche handed the reins to former stars Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy and have engineered one of the fastest franchise turnarounds in memory.
Armed with a squad of young stars who are living up to their potential—including last year's impressive No. 1 pick, Nathan MacKinnon—Colorado heads into the final weekend of the regular season in a first-place tie with the St. Louis Blues at the top of the Central Division, guaranteeing home-ice advantage and potentially matching up against a wild-card team.
The Avs are also just one point behind the Western Conference-leading Anaheim Ducks heading into Friday's games. They'll face Anaheim in their last game of the season on Sunday, which may turn out to determine which team claims that top seed.
We'll have to wait and see if this Colorado team is built to succeed in the playoffs, but the Avs will make history if they can climb all the way from the Western Conference cellar to the penthouse in just one season.
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Who's Hot and Who's Not?
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Who's Hot: Among the playoff teams, nearly everyone. The Colorado Avalanche have the best record over the last 10 games at 8-1-1. Several other contenders have played at least .750 hockey over the same stretch: Anaheim, Minnesota, Montreal and the New York Rangers. A few other teams have been playing almost as well through the season's final games.
Who's Not: The St. Louis Blues. After early-season prognostications of playoff glory from sources like EA Sports, the Blues have lost their mojo. The team has plenty to play for: They've already been knocked out of top spot in the Western Conference by Anaheim and are now being challenged by Colorado for top seed in the Central Division. But the Blues have lost four games in a row heading into Friday's action. They've also been losing players to injury and are ice cold as the countdown begins to the second season.
Don't read too much into Pittsburgh's 5-5-0 record down the stretch—their playoff spot's secure and they're resting some players. There could be more reason for concern in San Jose or Philadelphia, as both the Sharks and Flyers have sputtered in the late going.
Tight Race for Western Conference Wild Card
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Heading into the final weekend of the season, 15 teams have guaranteed their spots in the postseason.
One space remains—the second wild card in the Western Conference. It will be claimed by either the Dallas Stars or the Phoenix Coyotes.
With two games remaining for each team, the Stars have a two-point lead over the Coyotes and hold the edge in the tiebreaker.
It may come down to their head-to-head matchup in the final game of the season on Sunday, but Dallas can clinch sooner: with a win on Friday over St. Louis or a Phoenix loss on Saturday to San Jose.
If the Stars get in, it'll mark their first playoff appearance in six years—a tremendous achievement for a team that underwent a significant retooling last summer, both on and off the ice. The Coyotes reached the Western Conference Final in 2012 before missing the cut last season.
The Coyotes' fortunes have faltered since losing goaltender Mike Smith to injury on March 24. Since then, they've gone 2-3-4. Smith is practising and might be available for one or both of Phoenix's final two games. By then, it could be too late.
New Faces Who Could Be Game-Changers
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After the usual trade-deadline scramble to acquire that elusive missing piece of the playoff puzzle, the biggest deal might have been one that flew below the radar.
Faced with a gaping hole in their net, the Minnesota Wild acquired mercurial goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov from the Edmonton Oilers for a fourth-round draft pick—a deal that appears to have turned the team into a legitimate playoff contender.
The Wild are 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, and Bryz has a 7-0-3 record and 1.78 goals-against average since joining Minnesota in March. A meaningful playoff run would be sweet revenge for the goalie who was bought out of his $51 million contract by the Philadelphia Flyers last summer and had to work his way back up to the NHL through the minor leagues this season.
Bryzgalov's immediate impact has overshadowed the higher-profile moves from this year's deadline. The true value of acquisitions like Thomas Vanek, Matt Moulson, Marian Gaborik, Martin St. Louis, Ryan Callahan and Ryan Miller won't be clear until fans get a chance to see what they bring in the postseason.
Late-Season Injuries to Key Players
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Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews aren't the only key players whose injury status could play a major role in teams' playoff successes or failures.
The Tampa Bay Lightning suffered what could be a serious blow when their MVP goaltender Ben Bishop hurt his left arm and left Tuesday's game against Toronto. According to information culled by ProHockeyTalk, the injury does not appear as though it will force him to miss the postseason. But it could keep Bishop out for his team's early playoff games, which could severely impact the Lightning's chance of success in Round 1.
Nearly every playoff team is facing the potential absence of at least one key player as the postseason gets underway. According to TSN.ca, the walking wounded include goaltender Frederik Andersen of Anaheim, Colorado's Matt Duchene and P.A. Parenteau, Nathan Horton of Columbus, Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg, Drew Doughty of Los Angeles, Montreal's Alex Galchenyuk, Chris Kreider and Ryan McDonagh of the Rangers, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Pascal Dupuis and St. Louis' Vladimir Tarasenko, David Backes and T.J. Oshie.
Some of these players could be resting up before the second season gets underway. Those who remain on the sidelines will inevitably have more company once playoff games begin. Successful playoff teams don't just find ways to plug those holes—they use opportunities created by injuries to introduce and develop future stars.
Changes for Also-Rans
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After a disappointing late-season collapse that saw them fall out of playoff contention, the Toronto Maple Leafs made a significant front-office addition with Friday's announcement that Brendan Shanahan will become the team's new president, according to the team's official website. The timing indicates that the team wants to get started on its planning for next season as soon as possible.
The same is true in Vancouver, where Trevor Linden was named the team's new president of hockey operations one day after general manager Mike Gillis was relieved of his duties earlier this week.
These two moves are likely just the first in a series of offseason changes we'll see over the next couple of months. Winds are certainly blowing in Washington, as the Capitals will miss the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.
Which coaches and managers will be relieved of their duties as summer wears on, and what new faces might dazzle us with their success in 2014-15?
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