Stanley Cup Playoffs 2015: Updated Standings, Bracket and Top Must-See Games

It can take years for the NHL's balance of power to shift, but the stagnant salary cap has thinned out some of the established powers, thus resulting in significant postseason turnover this year.  With every playoff contender besides the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders down to their final game, it's become clear that we'll see some new faces in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins have combined to reach the Stanley Cup Final each of the past four seasons, but there's a high probability that both will miss the postseason this year, with the defending champs having already been ousted after dropping a must-win contest to the Calgary Flames Thursday night.  

In their place, surprise runs from the likes of the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and Flames should bring a lot of uncertainty (and drama) to the two-month playoff stretch.

Fourteen of the 16 playoff berths have already been clinched, but just four teams are locked into their current seedings.  Taking a look at the up-to-date playoff standings and current first-round matchups, let's highlight the remaining regular-season games that could impact the two biggest races remaining.

Place	Team	Division	Points
Atlantic Division
1	Montreal Canadiens	A	108
2	Tampa Bay Lightning	A	106
3	Detroit Red Wings	A	98
Metropolitan Division
1	New York Rangers	M	111
2	Washington Capitals	M	101
3	New York Islanders	M	98
Wild Card
1	Pittsburgh Penguins	M	98
2	Ottawa Senators	A	97
In the Hunt
3	Boston Bruins	A	95

Place	Team	Division	Points
Pacific Division
1	Anaheim Ducks	P	107
2	Vancouver Canucks	P	99
3	Calgary Flames	P	97
Central Division
1	St. Louis Blues	C	107
2	Nashville Predators	C	104
3	Chicago Blackhawks	C	102
Wild Card
1	Minnesota Wild	C	100
2	Winnipeg Jets	C	97

Series	Away Team	Home Team
W1 vs. A1	Pittsburgh Penguins	Montreal Canadiens
A3 vs. A2	Detroit Red Wings	Tampa Bay Lightning
W2 vs. M1	Ottawa Senators	New York Rangers
M3 vs. M2	New York Islanders	Washington Capitals
W1 vs. C1	Minnesota Wild	St. Louis Blues
C3 vs. C2	Chicago Blackhawks	Nashville Predators
W2 vs. P1	Winnipeg Jets	Anaheim Ducks
P3 vs. P2	Calgary Flames	Vancouver Canucks

Final Eastern Wild Card

NY Islanders at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh at Buffalo

Boston at Tampa Bay

Ottawa at Philadelphia

Jana Chytilova/Getty Images

Two of the troika of Boston, Pittsburgh and Ottawa will reach the postseason, with the Pens and Sens holding pole position over the reigning Presidents' Trophy winners.  Boston appeared safe after a five-game winning streak, but two consecutive losses coupled with a 6-2-2 stretch from the Senators have trimmed Ottawa's magic number down to a single point, heavily weighing the odds in its favor headed into Saturday's season finale:

The Penguins somehow have yet to clinch a playoff spot, though they only need a single point against either the slumping Isles or woeful Sabres.  Injuries have robbed a top-heavy squad of the star power it needs, particularly on the top two lines.  

Moreover, the absences of top defensemen Kris Letang and Christian Ehrhoff have deprived Pittsburgh of valuable power-play presences on the blue line.

While the Penguins will likely limp in despite an ugly 3-9-2 stretch, the Sens are one of the hottest teams in the league behind fairy-tale 27-year-old goalie Andrew Hammond.  Hammond's .937 save percentage is tops in the league of any goalie with at least 20 starts, just edging out presumptive Vezina winner Carey Pirce.

If the Sens can take a point from the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon, they'll have clinched a spot before the Bruins even drop the puck in Tampa later that night.  Boston needs both Pittsburgh and Ottawa to accrue no more points while also beating the Lightning.  

Considering that Tampa could still pass Montreal and earn the Atlantic Division crown due to the Bolts' edge in regulation/overtime wins (ROW), the B's appear hard-pressed enough just to get two points in their own contest.  Thus, look for the Penguins and Senators to skate into the postseason, with Ottawa serving as a potentially lethal matchup to the New York Rangers in the opening round.

Home Ice in the West

Anaheim at Arizona

Minnesota at St. Louis

Harry How/Getty Images

The West postseason pictured cleared up significantly after the Kings' demise, as all eight postseason spots are set.  However, we could still see fairly significant seeding turnover, with neither wild-card squad (Winnipeg and Minnesota) locked out of a top-three division seed.

We do know that either the Anaheim Ducks or St. Louis Blues will hold home ice throughout the Western Conference playoffs, with the Ducks currently holding the upper hand due to a 42-41 edge in ROW.  

Anaheim might actually represent a Potemkin powerhouse, however.  Not only is the Ducks' plus-eight goal differential easily the worst of any current playoff team in either conference, but advanced metrics like Hockey-Reference.com's Simple Rating System (SRS) don't even see Anaheim as a top-eight team in the West:

Team	SRS
St. Louis Blues	0.56
Chicago Blackhawks	0.54
Nashville Predators	0.39
Minnesota Wild	0.39
Calgary Flames	0.28
Winnipeg Jets	0.25
Vancouver Canucks	0.16
Los Angeles Kings	0.15
Anaheim Ducks	0.1
Dallas Stars	0.02
San Jose Sharks	-0.05
Colorado Avalanche	-0.07
Edmonton Oilers	-1
Arizona Coyotes	-1.16

Playing against Arizona will likely gift the Ducks the top seed anyways, however.  Intriguingly, it's impossible for any team to jockey for wild-card positioning to play Anaheim instead of St. Louis, even if one assumes that the Ducks will pick up two points against the hapless Coyotes.  

Either the Winnipeg Jets or Calgary Flames will be the second wild-card team, but the Flames could actually still catch Vancouver and earn the second seed in the Pacific Division.

It's not hard to envision chaos unfolding in the West, especially if higher seeds like Chicago and Minnesota are actually favored in their opening-round matchups.  With Los Angeles out of the picture, the conference crown truly is an open eight-team race.