The “regular” portion of the 2015-16 NHL season is nearly over, with just three-to-seven games remaining for every team in the league. For most teams, the standings have devolved from a race to the playoffs into a finer consideration of either exact postseason seeding or draft lottery odds.
Still, there are a few teams on the bubble whose fate remains up in the air.
It makes sense to start with the Western Conference, where six teams have mathematically guaranteed themselves playoff games. Realistically, the seventh-ranked Nashville Predators are a lock, too, with a nine-point lead over the ninth-placed Colorado Avalanche. That reduces our consideration to two teams, and the footing of those clubs isn’t remotely even.
The Minnesota Wild have a five-point lead on Colorado with five games remaining to each team, which even under perfect circumstances is a pretty big gap. The remaining schedule heavily favours Minnesota, as the Wild play only one team guaranteed to be in the postseason over the remainder of their slate and also play three of their five games at home.
The Avalanche, i ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
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