At this point of the 2014-15 NHL season, you can stick the 30 teams into five different categories.
There are the front-runners, the cream of the crop heading into the playoffs. They're the potential division champs, the teams ready to make deep runs in the postseason with few, if any, holes in the roster.
You have the contenders who aren't at risk of missing out on qualifying but aren't as safe a bet as the top teams. They may be in the mix for home ice in the first round or even in the hunt for a division title, but they come with some questions or injury baggage.
The playoff hopefuls are the bubble teams either sitting tentatively in the wild-card spots, third slot in the division standings or on the outside looking in with a mathematical and somewhat realistic hope of displacing one of the squads above them.
Spoilers are teams that have no realistic shot at making the playoffs but may be able to make a difference in the standings by stealing points away from the higher seeds. These teams take pride in the fact they're playing out the season with pride.
Then there are the rebuilders. These are the hopeless teams that ar ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Steve Macfarlane
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March 18th, 2015 by Steve Macfarlane Leave a reply »
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