* The West is not set thanks to the Blues, who are now three points back of the reigning Stanley Cup champions for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

* The regular-season will end one week from today, with four playoff spots still up for grabs (two in each conference) and all eight First Round matchups to be determined.

* None of the 12 teams that have clinched a playoff spot have secured a specific seed, and each of them have at least four potential opponents in the First Round. Click here to see all the possible outcomes.

* All five contenders in the Eastern Conference playoff race are in action tonight, with the Capitals able to overtake the Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division standings. If that doesn’t happen, the winner of the Red Wings-Penguins matchup could move back into the second Wild Card spot.

from Rachel Doerrie of ESPN,

To qualify as a "prospect" for the purposes of this list, the player must be under 23 years old, not a full-time NHL player -- to allow for players bouncing between levels (Brendan Brisson, Thomas Bordeleau) -- selected in the entry draft, and have his rights owned or signed an entry-level contract as a free agent (Collin Graf). Players who were undrafted and signed to AHL contracts are excluded.

#4 Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings have collected some top talent in recent drafts, giving them the fourth most valuable prospect pool. Simon Edvinsson leads the way on the back end, but he's not the only notable defensive prospect in the Red Wings' pipeline.

Axel Sandin-Pellikka had a fantastic season and has the makings of an impact defenseman. William Willander and Shai Buium are two other candidates to be solid defenders at the NHL level.

The Red Wings have a few high-value prospects in Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson at center and Trey Augustine in goal.

At least four of the players in the Red Wings pool are projected to be impactful NHL players, with three more projected to be NHL-caliber. There is a lot to like about Detroit's future with the level of prospects they have at every position.

31 more ($) teams

9 minutes to watch.

Over 18 minutes of talk.

from Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff,

The NHL is concurrently drafting two versions of a league schedule matrix for the 2024-25 season, one with the Arizona Coyotes and another with the Coyotes franchise playing in Salt Lake City in the event of relocation, multiple sources told Daily Faceoff.

That does not mean the NHL has firmed up plans to relocate the franchise yet, just that the league has a viable contingency plan for next season. But the news comes on the heels of billionaire prospective owner Ryan Smith publicly soliciting potential names for an NHL team in Utah earlier this week.

As the NHL has been working on dual paths, multiple sources indicate Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo is intimately involved in both. The first, of course, involves the Coyotes remaining in the Phoenix area by building a new arena via Arizona State Land Trust auction, which is scheduled for June 27.

continued

from the NHLPA,

The NHLPA Player Poll has returned with the 2023-24 edition. During the regular season, 639 NHL players were surveyed on 15 hockey-related questions. Players weighed in on a variety of topics, including top positional players, most complete player, best playmaker, best style, toughest arena to play in and more!

If you need to win one game, who is the goalie you want on your team?

Make it three seasons in a row now for Andrei Vasilevskiy who received 289 votes as the players’ top pick to defend the crease for their team in a must-win game. With two Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy and a Vezina Trophy already in his back pocket, this netminder’s experience is hard to ignore.

If you need to win a faceoff, who would you pick?

Blink and you’ll miss it! As a veteran in the faceoff circle, Ryan O’Reilly gets another clean win with 80 votes. Sidney Crosby finished closely behind with 75 votes. Meanwhile, Claude Giroux and Luke Glendening placed third and fourth, respectively, and Jordan Staal received one vote more than Anze Kopitar to round out the top five.

more plus two related videos below...

from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

A 2-1 loss to the Capitals was the result of ill-advised decisions with the puck made by experienced forwards J.T. Compher and David Perron that both resulted in Washington goals during the final 2:13 of the second period.

“Those were controllable situations,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde of the two miscues that led to Capitals tallies. “We gave them some zone time and some looks off of some turnovers.”...

Poor puck management has victimized the Red Wings all season long. These self-inflicted mistakes were Hockey 101 stuff. You learn early never to throw the puck out of your zone up the middle of the ice. Likewise, the last thing you want to do with the puck as the period is nearing a conclusion is send it back toward your own net.

Tuesday, those bad decisions put the Red Wings behind the eight ball, handing the Caps a playoff position. Detroit is now trailing Washington (85 points). The Red Wings are in a deadlock with Pittsburgh (84 points). They’re heading next to the Steel City for a Thursday showdown with the Penguins.

“This one certainly stings,” Lalonde was admitting. “We still have some games to play. If we take care of business, I still think we’re in this thing.

“It’s just gonna be a little harder now, obviously, going into Pittsburgh, into Toronto. It stinks, it happens.”

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* Alex Ovechkin recorded an NHL-record 18th career 30-goal campaign to propel the Capitals into a playoff spot on the same night Auston Matthews scored his 66th goal of 2023-24 to surpass Ovechkin for the highest single-season total among active skaters.

* Nathan MacKinnon, Juraj Slafkovsky and Steven Stamkos each netted hat tricks for their clubs. Tuesday marked the first time three first-overall picks each registered a three-goal performance on the same day.

* The Predators clinched the sixth postseason berth in the Western Conference and are officially headed to the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

* More movement can be on the horizon during a three-game Wednesday – the Golden Knights have a chance to jump into third place in the Pacific Division when they face the Oilers on TNT, MAX, TVA Sports and various Sportsnet channels.

Watch the hit below and these two teams meet again on Saturday afternoon.

Below, watch his three goals tonight in two periods.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

"Just trying to process it all," said captain Dylan Larkin after the hard-fought loss. "A lot of emotions. Frustrated. We just didn't put the puck in the net. Very frustrated.

"We had chances. A lot of chances, a lot of shots. We had chances they gave us, too. We just didn't execute and that's twice Lindgren has had our number and we just didn't score."...

Both goals against were the result of Wings' turnovers that contributed to the deficit, and ultimately, the loss.

"It was turnovers that led to getting them those chances and scoring," coach Derek Lalonde said. "It just didn't go our way. I liked our game. This one stings because we played a pretty good game and we just got away from our puck play at the end of the second period. We couldn't have been any better for the first 35 minutes.

"We had some turnovers and that's their MO, they get saves by an outstanding goaltender and they take advantage of opportunities if you give it to them."Unfortunately in the second we gave them some opportunities."

more

Below watch Larkin, Perron and Lalonde after the loss.

Two late goals by the Capitals in the second period has Washington up 2-0 headed to the third period. The last goal for the Caps with nine seconds left really hurt.

In the third the Wings scored with a second left. Capitals win 2-1.

A devastating loss of the Wings.

Team Stats

Kane goal below.

Good evening and welcome to all. We all know what has to happen tonight as the Red Wings are playing the Capitals in what is arguably the biggest game of the season so far. Everything is on the line for both teams. Need I say more?

Lyon has the net tonight. Seider is a game time decision(illness). As of 3:00 PM no other changes to the lineup have been announced.

It’s the Capitals vs the Red Wings. The puck is set to drop around 7:00 PM and will be broadcast on ESPN, and on the Red Wings Radio Network 97.1 (The Ticket in Detroit) for your listening pleasure. Also available on SPORTSNET+.

It’s a Live Blog!

via the NHL PR department,

It could be the three 130-point players, the 65-goal scorer, the five teams separated by two points battling for two Eastern Conference playoff spots, the three Western Conference playoff seeds still up for grabs, the five clubs separated by six points at the top of the NHL standings, the changing-daily potential playoff matchups or “all of the above” that is making for “sweet, beautiful, end of the season mayhem.”

from Sportsnet,

The pursuit of a forever home for the Arizona Coyotes seems to be a never-ending saga.

In their latest hitch, Scottsdale mayor David Ortega opposed the Coyotes' plans to purchase land in North Phoenix — bordering Scottsdale — to build their arena in an opinion piece written Monday for the Arizona Digital Free Press, calling the project unfeasible and unwelcome.

"The prospect of a rookie developer attempting to buy Arizona State Trust Land with absolutely no infrastructure on the Phoenix side of Loop 101 and Scottsdale Road intersection at the doorstep of Scottsdale is not feasible, or welcome," Ortega wrote.

"I admire the hockey sport, Arizona Coyotes community involvement and phenomenal youth clubs at Scottsdale Ice Den. But I along with City of Scottsdale staff will continue to monitor any actions that occur, and negative repercussions for Scottsdale. As it stands today, the fantasy hockey project must move west, away from Scottsdale."...

The Coyotes declined to comment on Ortega's statement when contacted by Sportsnet.

read on

from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

One key component for the Red Wings was again missing in action as far as putting the puck in the next was concerned. Alex DeBrincat failed to score. His account is showing one tally over 18 games since Feb. 29.

“I’ve definitely got to bear down more and put some pucks in the net and work on that,” DeBrincat was acknowledging.

He’s certainly right about that. When the Red Wings were trading a first-round pick, prospect Donovan Sebrango and 20-goal scorer Dominik Kubalik to the Ottawa Senators for DeBrincat last summer, they were doing so with the expectation that he’d be filling the opposition net with pucks.

It’s also why they were inking the native Michigander to a four-year, $31.5 million contract. The Red Wings aren’t paying DeBrincat nearly $8 million per season to create chances. A provision of that stipend is that he be finishing chances.

At the start of the season, he was doing exactly that. Through his first nine games with Detroit, DeBrincat was good for eight goals.

Now, no one was expecting him to maintain a 73-goal pace. Then again, nobody was thinking he’d be falling off to a Michael Rasmussen scoring pace.

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* The Penguins pushed their point streak to nine games to match the idle Red Wings (Wild Card 2) at 84 points. Pittsburgh will watch Tuesday as the other six teams in the Eastern Conference playoff race hit the ice, including a pivotal showdown between the Capitals and Red Wings on ESPN (7 p.m. ET).

* A Canucks comeback win against the Golden Knights featured noteworthy performances from their top scorers as J.T. Miller recorded his first 100-point season and Brock Boeser notched his first 40-goal campaign.

* Auston Matthews continued his quest to the 70-goal milestone by scoring his 65th of 2023-24, tying Alex Ovechkin for the most in a season among active players.

* The Predators and Kings can clinch playoff spots, while the Rangers, Stars and Bruins can secure division titles.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

The Wings haven't been to the playoffs during their time at LCA, but even more so, they've been out of the playoff picture so early, there really haven't been any meaningful games.

But that's about to change Tuesday as the Wings and Capitals play a colossal game for wild-card positioning in the Eastern Conference.

The Wings, with 84 points, entered Monday's games alone in the wild-card spot, pending Pittsburgh's game Monday night in Toronto. Pittsburgh, Washington and Philadelphia all had 83 points....

The Wings have earned points in four of their last six games and won two of the last three. In this unique playoff race where no team has truly been able to make a sustained charge and take control of the playoff spot, that's been good enough for the Wings assume control for now.

Lalonde doesn't expect his team to be too high or low emotionally in one of their biggest games to date.

"We've been even keel, the same message throughout," Lalonde said. "We've been in these all-or-nothing games for a while now. The guys have gotten a little more comfortable with it, so it's the same message about our starts and doing the right things, and our team game.

"This group has been dialed and locked in. I've been impressed and proud of this group and how they keep battling through everything. They'll show up."

more ($)

Let's make this an open post too for tonight's Pens/Leafs game at 7pm in Toronto.

from Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic,

The question is whether teams, players and fans are tired of this format, and whether they would prefer going back to the conference playoff format the league had before: 1 versus 8, 2 versus 7, etc.

I posed that to team presidents around the league over the past few days. I asked them because this is a Board of Governors matter, not a GMs matter.

“I understand the thought behind the current format to create rivalries between divisional opponents; there just isn’t as many regular-season divisional games like there used to be,” Boston Bruins president Cam Neely said via text message. “I’d like to see how a conference format would be received by hockey fans.”

Another Hockey Hall of Fame player turned team president, the Los Angeles Kings’ Luc Robitaille, said he doesn’t have a problem with the current playoff format but does wish there would be more divisional games in the regular season. Still, like Neely he would be open to having the discussion.

“Honestly, this is the first year where I feel like people are talking about that,” Robitaille said over the phone. “It seems to be more vocal. I have not looked into it, in terms of what it would do with everything around it, the big picture of it all. But like Cam, I would listen at least and study it, yes.”

A dozen or so other team presidents and governors requested anonymity in their responses, as the commissioner prefers this subject not be hashed out in public by teams.

Of those, the majority were in favor of going back to the 1-8 conference format or at least having a serious conversation about it.

more ($)

from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

Ville Husso isn’t likely to play another regular season game for the Detroit Red Wings but hopes to be available if needed in the playoffs.

Husso has been practicing for several weeks and will play one or two games this weekend with the Grand Rapids Griffins on a conditioning stint. The Griffins host Rockford on Friday and play at Chicago Saturday and Sunday.

Husso hasn’t played since Feb. 13, when he suffered another lower-body injury midway through the first period in Edmonton. That was his first appearance since Dec. 18, when he suffered his first injury in the first period against Anaheim.

“Bad luck there. Maybe I came (back) a little too fast from the first injury,” Husso said.

“It’s been a long road but I feel good now. More mentally try to prepare like we make the playoffs and then be an option. That’s been my biggest thing the last couple of weeks.”...

Husso has one year remaining on his contract and said there was no discussion of shutting him down for the season.

“Not in my head, never.,” he said. “I wish we’ll make the playoffs and you never know what’s going to happen. In my head the last couple weeks I was like make sure I’m ready if I get the call to play here or wherever. There was no thoughts that I would not play (again) this year.”

a little more

NEW YORK (April 8, 2024) – Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov, Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby and New York Rangers left wing Artemi Panarin have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” for the week ending April 7.