The "80-point" playoff race

The race for the Western Conference wild-cards

As the season begins to wind down, the playoff races are heating up. In the Western Conference, the 8th place Coyotes are sitting at 82 points, only ahead of Dallas by three and Vancouver by four, following the Canuck's win over the Wild last night. Vancouver's win stopped the 7th place Wild, with 85 points, from jumping farther ahead of Phoenix.

Although the teams are spread out fairly evenly, it's close enough to worry if you're Minnesota or Phoenix. Vancouver has finally picked up the pace and won their last three, so tonight's game against Colorado will prove crucial in their playoff chances. Both Phoenix and Minnesota have games tonight as well, so tonight could be very telling for the West's wild-card.

The EPIC playoff race in the Eastern Conference

But the Western Conference doesn't come close to the current drama in the East. Four teams are tied at 80 points, battling for the two wild-card spots to make this year's first round. Unless the Flyers (three points ahead of the four-way tie) fall apart, two of those 80-point teams are going home early.

Gustav Nyquist is keeping Detroit alive in the playoff race with 9 goals in his last 6 games. But is that enough? (Photo by Greg Fiume)

Each one of these squads has quite a story. First we have Detroit, who is desperately trying to keep their playoff appearance streak alive. At 22 seasons, it's currently the fifth-longest all-time in the league. The Wings have struggled with injuries all season, and currently are without Zetterberg, Datsyuk, or Abdelkader. They lost a pivotal match in regulation against Columbus on Tuesday, bringing the Blue Jackets to 80 points. Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, and Alfredsson can only do so much alone. Wings fans are getting impatient to say the least, considering they haven't experienced missing the playoffs since 1990.

A few hours south, the Blue Jackets are attempting to make their second postseason appearance, ever. Their first, five years ago, was a four-game exit to Detroit...The Blue Jackets have surprisingly re-tooled quite well since losing Rick Nash, now with a near 30-goal scorer in young Ryan Johansen, who's having a breakout year. Anisimov and Dubinsky, both former Rangers, have been performing well. The Blue Jackets have a rough road to finish the season; four of their ten games are against Pittsburgh, Colorado, the surging Philadelphia Flyers, and Chicago.

Ovechkin, seen here scoring against LA on Tuesday night, leads the NHL with 48 goals this season (Photo by Rob Carr)

The Washington Capitals are an interesting situation. Alex Ovechkin leads the league in goals by a mile, and has near-singlehandedly made the team's offense this year. However, the team struggles with nearly everything else. With nine games remaining, the Capitals need to make a large offensive push. Although the Caps have made six-straight playoffs, it's been an early exit every single time. Even during their 2010 President's Trophy run, the Canadiens found their way around the Caps' strategy. This might be the team's last chance before big changes come sweeping through.

Gardiner, Gleason, Bernier, and Reimer watch from the bench as Toronto fails to tie Tuesday's game against St. Louis. (Photo by Nathan Denette)

And finally, Toronto, who earlier had a large jump on the playoff race, now have lost their last six. They have sat stagnant at 80 points since March 13, letting everyone catch-up. Partly due to Bernier's injury, and partly equated to sloppy play, the Maple Leafs are facing an uphill climb to what looked like an easy playoff spot. With only 8 games left in their season, Toronto has to do nearly perfect to catch up to the other 80-point teams, as they all have games in-hand. Toronto can max out at 96 points, while Detroit and Columbus can both still reach 100. 

Therefore, a key game is tomorrow at 7 p.m., when Toronto plays in Philadelphia. If the Leafs can snap their losing streak, this will give the pack of playoff hungry teams a chance to catch the Flyers.

All of this, of course, is to determine who gets to face the grueling first round matchup against either Boston or Pittsburgh...good luck!