We’re just a couple of weeks away from the end of the 2022-23 NHL regular season, which means the Stanley Cup Playoff races are heating up. The Boston Bruins have already clinched the President’s Trophy for the best record in the NHL, but every team in the Atlantic Division is still alive, and Columbus is the only Metropolitan Division team out of the playoffs. The Dallas Stars were the top team in the Western Conference just a couple of weeks ago, but now they have just the sixth-best record in the conference and are still in danger of crashing out of the playoffs altogether if they can’t stop blowing third-period leads. Let’s break down the current playoff picture as you think about your NHL betting for the postseason.
NHL News: Updated Playoff Picture
How does the format work? The top three teams in each division qualify. Each conference also gets two wild-card teams, which are the two teams with the best records after the top three in each division. Qualification depends on points (two points for a win, one point for a loss in overtime or in a shootout). Teams who are tied in points are then seeded on the basis of their number of wins in regulation.
The division winners play the wild-card teams; the division winner in each conference with the better record plays the lower wild-care team. The second- and third-place teams in each division face each other in the first round. All rounds are best-of-seven. Overtime lasts just five minutes at 3-on-3 during the regular season before going to a shootout, but in the playoffs, overtime is sudden-death, 5-on-5 hockey, consisting of 20-minute periods until one team scores.
Here’s how things would look if the season ended today.
Western Conference
Toronto
has slid off the radar after making multiple moves at the trade deadline. In their last 10 games, they have gone 6-3-1, which has kept them close enough to the top to avoid slipping into one of the two wild-card positions. It helps that Tampa Bay has also played inconsistently as well, and it also helps that MItchell Marner has had a career-best season. The penalty kill has been serviceable, and the power play has been solid, both of which help tremendously in the playoffs.New Jersey
has a secure grip on second in the Metropolitan Division and is closing in on Carolina, but the Hurricanes have games in hand – and the Rangers are chasing both of them down. Going 5-3-2 in the last ten games hasn’t been ideal, but the Devils have clinched a playoff spot, and Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton and Nico Hischier have 86, 68 and 70 points, respectively.The Islanders
are a team that you always read about around playoff time, thanks in part to a gritty defense and elite goaltending (from Ilya Sorokin this time around) Bo Horvat has broken the 30-goal barrier, giving the Islanders an often missing offensive dimension. Can they hold onto their wild card spot, or even threaten to inch upward?Devils vs Islanders March 27 NHL Highlights 2023
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