NHL Playoff Predictions at the Two Thirds Mark

The NHL season is approximately 2/3′s of the way finished.  The two-thirds mark is actually about 54.5 games and looking at the standings today most teams are right around that number – some over some under, but close enough.  In this post I’m going to be giving my predictions of where teams will finish in their conference at the end of the regular season.  I’ll give a little snippit about my reasoning, but this is mostly just to put down my predictions.  Do with them what you will.

Eastern Conference

1. Philadelphia Flyers
2. Washington Capitals
3. Boston Bruins
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. Tampa Bay Lightning
6. Montreal Canadiens
7. Buffalo Sabres
   
8. Carolina Hurricanes
9. New York Rangers
10. Atlanta Thrashers
11. New Jersey Devils
12. Toronto Maple Leafs
13. Florida Panthers
14. New York Islanders
15. Ottawa Senators

What you might notice in this conference is how I have the Washington Capitals passing the Tampa Bay Lightning for the top spot in the Southeast Division.  The Caps are underachieving and I think the Lightning are overachieving at the moment.  The Capitals are a good team who should get a lot of wins down the stretch.

Another thing you may notice is the Buffalo Sabres finishing in 7th and making the playoffs.  This would have been absurd to think at the 1/3 mark, but they have been playing great and have a good enough team to pass the Rangers, Hurricanes and Thrashers down the stretch.  This left the Rangers and Thrashers out of the playoffs.

Finally, the Ottawa Senators will come last in the East and most likely last in the league.  The team will sell hard at the deadline and sputter down the stretch, but this will at least guarantee them a top 2 overall pick in the draft.

Western Conference

1. Vancouver Canucks
2. Detroit Red Wings
3. San Jose Sharks
4. Chicago Blackhawks
5. Nashville Predators
6. Anaheim Ducks
7. Minnesota Wild
8. Los Angeles Kings
9. Dallas Stars
10. Phoenix Coyotes
11. Colorado Avalanche
12. Calgary Flames
13. Columbus Blue Jackets
14. St. Louis Blues
15. Edmonton Oilers

The West is way more jam packed at the moment which allowed me to really do a lot with my predictions.  The first division winners shouldn’t be much of a surprise, with the only move being San Jose catching Dallas for the Pacific division championship.

Now let’s move into the surpises.  The Blackhawks are currently in 11th and I have them finishing in 4th.  The team is simply too good not to make the playoffs and the spread between 4th and 11th at the moment is only 6 points.  I expect the Blackhawks to start playing some playoff style hockey and to move up the standings.  They were the Cup favourites at the beginning of the season!

After that I see the Preds continuing to play streaky hockey and the wins they string together will be enough to get them into 5th spot.  After that the Ducks will move up from 7th to 6th and the Wild and Kings will take the playoff spots away from the Stars, Flames and Coyotes to secure the last two spots.  I’m a Havlat fan so that may be biased, but I truly believe they have a good enough team, especially with Zidlicky coming back and Backstrom playing grade A hockey.  The Kings will not allow themselves to miss playoffs and will squeek into 8th in order to give the ‘Nucks a tough first round matchup.  The only other small surprise is the Avs getting up to 11th with the help of Forsberg.  The spread from 4th to 12th will still be only around 6 points come playoff time, so the West will go right down to the wire!

This race will make for some great hockey betting online.  If NHL betting interests you make sure to check out a variety of sports betting sites in order to find the one that is best for you.  Look for things such as bonuses, deposit options, customer service, but above all else use a bookie that is trusted.