ROAD TO THE PLAYOFFS

Evaluating Teams Still In The Hunt For The 24-25 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The 2024-25 Stanley Cup Playoffs are right around the corner. April 19th! That’s a measly 13 days away. Some teams, The Blues, The Wild, & The Avalanche to name a few, only have four games remaining. Before you finish blinking your eyes, we’ll be watching opening matches. With that being said, there are still 11 teams battling for spots in the West and 13 teams battling in the East. Let’s take a look at some of the relevant teams in the East, evaluating their top stars, their remaining games, and/or their biggest hurdles blocking their path to becoming Stanley Cup Champions. Then, I’ll make predictions for both conferences on how I think things will shake out.

EASTERN CONFERENCE:

WASHINGTON CAPITALS:

Believe it or not…the Washington Capitals have more on their mind than Ovechkin’s 895th goal - although, it was wildly entertaining. With five games remaining, the Capitals are neck-and-neck with the Western Conference Leaders, the Winnipeg Jets, in the President’s Trophy race. The Jets also have five games remaining. Washington will look to finish the year off strong, but even if they lose all five remaining games, they will likely retain their position at the top of the Eastern Conference. Right now, the Capitals (107) hold a 9 point lead over the next closest team, the Toronto Maple Leafs (98). Lead by Dylan Strome’s 76 points & Aliaksei Protas’ +40, the Capitals appear to be the force to be reckoned with come April 19th. The path to the Stanley Cup Finals will, undoubtedly, run through them.

MONTREAL CANADIENS:

Montreal currently holds the 8th and final spot in the Eastern Conference. With their victories over Philadelphia on Saturday & Nashville on Sunday, The Habs moved to 85 points on the year. They have been on a tear since returning from the 4 Nations break in February, going 13-4-4 & posting an impressive 3.29 goals/game in that span. The Canadiens have five games remaining, two of which are against Atlantic Division rivals - playing in Ottawa on Friday & in Toronto on Saturday. These games will be a good test for Head Coach St. Louis’ group as they hope to still be playing hockey come April 19th. On the backs of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, & the Quinn Hughes Protege Lane Hutson, The Habs have been an impressive story this year & I, personally, would love to see them take down Carbery’s Capitals in the first round.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS:

The best way I can describe the Devils this season is by asking you to picture a 5-on-3 PP opportunity where one of the 3 defenders loses his stick and is now meandering around trying to still be useful. The New Jersey Devils are that stick-less defender. They’ve somehow managed to kill off the PP and stay afloat, but it hasn’t been pretty. They’ve gone 9-7-1 since the beginning of March, which is nothing to boast about, but they still hold that third spot in the Metropolitan Division, which, I guess, is something to boast about. The Devils owe their success to the defense. Despite losing defensemen Dougie Hamilton on March 4th to a lower body injury, The Devils have held their opponents to 2 or less goals in 7 of those 9 wins. They’ve done this despite their netminder, Jacob Markstrom, posting these numbers since March 1st: 3.47 GAA, .863 %, 4-5-1. They currently hold an 10 point lead over the next closest team in the Metropolitan division. With only five games remaining, their position is relatively secure.

CAROLINA HURRICANES:

Carolina is one of several teams that are all but certain of where they will finish the regular season. They currently sit 2nd in the Metropolitan Division behind the Capitals & in front of the Devils. They hold an 7 point lead over the Devils, but they trail the Capitals by 11 points. An impressive 8-game win streak through the middle of March really solidified Carolina’s position. They’ve gone 12-5 in their last 17 games. They traded their soul for Mikko Rantanen & then flipped him to Dallas just six weeks later. In the process of acquiring Rantanen & trading Rantanen, the Hurricanes lost F Martin Necas, F Jack Drury, a ‘25 2nd round pick, and a ‘26 4th round pick. They acquired F Taylor Hall, F Logan Stankoven, ‘26 1st round pick, ‘28 1st round pick, ‘26 3rd round pick, and ‘27 3rd round pick. And, then they’ve gone 9-4 since. Safe to say Carolina’s had a great year! They’ll look to continue their success in their final six games of the season and then in the all-but-certain matchup versus The NJ Devils come April 19th.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS:

The Maple Leafs are in a neck-and-neck battle for the Atlantic Division title with the Tampa Bay Lighting & Florida Panthers. They’ve looked dominant all year. However, one looming question remains…what will this Maple Leafs group do in the postseason? They’ve won 1 playoff round since the 2005 NHL lockout despite making the playoffs 9 times during that span. Led by Mitch Marner’s 94 points & William Nylander’s 44 goals, The Maple Leafs look to finish the final six games strong. April 8th & April 9th will likely decide Toronto’s position as they play The Panthers and The Lightning back-to-back…both games will be on the road for Toronto. That will be a good test for this group to see what they’re truly made of. Their impressive 47 wins this year means nothing if they see another 1st round exit.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING:

The Lighting! Our beloved Bolts. We have a game every other day until our season concludes on the road against the New York Rangers on April 17th. We’ve posted a 10-6-1 record since the start of March & we currently hold the 2nd spot in the ever-so-tight Atlantic division race. With games remaining against both Atlantic division rivals (Maple Leafs & Panthers), the Lightning hope to secure home-ice advantage for as much of the playoffs as possible. Home ice advantage may be of the utmost importance for this Lightning group seeing as they’ve posted a 27-8-2 record on home ice this year. Compare that to the 17-18-4 road record & you can see why staying home for playoffs may be helpful. Head coach Jon Cooper says he prefers to have home ice advantage, but he also acknowledges that The Lightning have lost in previous years while at home & have, likewise, won games on the road too. In the 2022-23 season, The Lightning posted a home record of 28-8-5 and a road record of 18-22-1; however, in their first-round loss to Toronto they won two of three on the road while dropping all three at home. Nevertheless, having home-ice advantage is preferred. Nikita Kuuuuuuucherov leads the team with 112 points followed by Brandon Hagel’s 82 points. Vasilevskiy has been lights-out since the 4 Nations break…posting these impressive numbers: 1.75 GAA, .930%, 11-5-0.

FLORIDA PANTHERS:

Last year’s Stanley Cup Champions may appear to be floating by in a lazy river right now - going 4-8-1 in their last 13 games, with only one of those wins coming in regulation - but, make no mistake, the reigning Stanley Cup Champs will certainly be a powerhouse come playoffs. It’s common for dominant teams to “ease up” towards the end of the regular season. Stars get more rest…players like Barkov play with ever-so-slightly less energy…and goalies get a little laxidasical…it’s normal. I don’t buy the “Panthers-have-fallen-off” narrative at all. Sam Reinhart is closing in on 40 goals again, Tkachuk is his usual dominant self, and Brad Marchand is a Florida Panther. They have all the pieces to win the Eastern Conference & potentially bring Lord Stanley home again. They have 5 games remaining; I won’t be surprised at all if they continue their recent trend. But, NHL, beware! April 19th will show a completely different Panthers team.

NEW YORK RANGERS:

The New York Rangers are borderline eliminated. They currently sit 6 points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference. On Saturday, they fumbled a near “must-win” against the New Jersey Devils. Not only did they fumble the chance to win, but they also got shut-out (4-0). It feels a whole lot like throwing an interception on your two-minute drill in the fourth quarter. With 6 games remaining on the schedule, they have a path to make up the 6 points, but they’ll need to pick up the pace in a hurry. They brought JT Miller back in hopes to save their season, but he’s been mediocre at best. They made Igor Shesterkin the highest paid goalie in the league, but his play has resembled a backup goalie more than an 11.5 million AAV goaltender. He’ll need to have a miraculous finish to the season if the Rangers want to continue playing hockey past April 17th.

OTTAWA SENATORS:

The last time the Ottawa Senators were playing postseason hockey was the 2016-17 NHL season. However, this year certainly appears to be the end of that drought. Ottawa has been dominant since returning from the 4 Nations break, separating themselves from the rest of the eastern conference wildcard teams & all but solidifying their postseason ticket. German F Tim Stutzle leads the way with 72 points on the year. Goaltender Linus Ullmark has been a game-changer for the Senators. He has posted a 23-14-3 record with a .911% and 2.68 GAA. On top of that, he has 4 shutouts to his name…most recently blanking the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday. Ottawa has five games remaining, but their season will continue into the postseason with a head-to-head matchup against an Atlantic Division rival: The Tampa Bay Lightning, The Florida Panthers, or The Toronto Maple Leafs.

WESTERN CONFERENCE:

While the Eastern conference is playing meaningful games for seeding & matchups in the playoffs, the Western conference is essentially set-in-stone. For that reason, I will bypass the review of each individual team. The eight teams that are, basically, a sure-fire deal to be seeing extra hockey come April 19th are as follows:

WINNNIPEG JETS
DALLAS STARS
COLORADO AVALANCHE
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
LOS ANGELES KINGS
EDMONTON OILERS
MINNESOTA WILD
ST LOUIS BLUES

These eight teams are the most likely to make the postseason. Calgary and Vancouver are hanging onto hope, but they’ll need to win their remaining 6 games & receive some help to accomplish that feat {**written Sunday night before the final of VGKvsVAN**}.

BOOMER’S PREDICTIONS:

With all this reviewing behind us…the question is, “How do I think the playoffs will shape up?” Well, here are my predictions for where things will stand at the final buzzer on April 17th:

Eastern Conference:
(Atlantic Division):

1: Toronto Maple Leafs
2: Tampa Bay Lightning
3: Florida Panthers

Eastern Conference:
(Metropolitan Division):

1: ***Washington Capitals***
2: Carolina Hurricanes
3: New Jersey Devils

Eastern Conference:
(Wildcard Teams):

1: Ottawa Senators
2: Montreal Canadiens

---

Western Conference:
(Central Division):

1: **Dallas Stars**
2: Winnipeg Jets
3: Colorado Avalanche

Western Conference:
(Pacific Division):

1: Vegas Golden Knights
2: Los Angeles Kings
3: Edmonton Oilers

Western Conference:
(Wildcard teams):

1: Minnesota Wild
2: St Louis Blues

{** = Winner of the conference} // {*** = President’s Trophy Winner}

---