Four NHL Teams Facing Crunch Time Late in the Season

We’re not yet in April, but crunch time has arrived for many NHL teams. 

For different reasons, numerous franchises are more or less in must-win mode, whether it's just to make the playoffs and see where it takes them or setting themselves up for a more favorable opponent. And those teams play in both NHL conferences.

In the Eastern Conference, the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils are facing a crossroads of sorts right now, and it has everything to do with simply just making the Stanley Cup playoffs. 

The Capitals have won five of their last six games to sneak into the second and final wild-card berth in the East. Even now, though, they’re far from out of the woods regarding the post-season. 

In their remaining 12 games, Washington has six games against teams currently in a playoff position – Toronto, Boston (twice), Carolina, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. They’ll almost assuredly need to win at least three of those games and about all of the other half-dozen contests against lesser lights just to be in the mix for a playoff spot.

Similarly, the Devils are in a very difficult standings position. With 10 games left on their schedule, New Jersey is currently three teams and five standings points behind Washington. 

The Devils also have a more difficult slate of games remaining than the Capitals do: three games (!) against the Leafs and one game each against Buffalo, Pittsburgh, the New York Rangers, Ottawa, Nashville, Philadelphia and the New York Islanders. 

Anything less than seven or eight wins will result in a missed playoff opportunity for the Devils, which were considered to be one of the East’s more dominant teams before the season. The potential for a letdown is very real, and only a burst of high-end play is going to prevent it.

On the other hand, a different type of crunch time has arrived for Western Conference teams, such as the Los Angeles Kings and defending Cup-champion Vegas Golden Knights. 

With more separation in the West’s standings, the Kings and Golden Knights are now in a fierce showdown for what probably will be third place in the Pacific Division or the second wild-card slot. 

There’s still a chance either Vegas or Los Angeles could overtake the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific, but if the Oilers shake off their current woes, they can take charge of their destiny. 

The team that finishes in third place will probably get the Oilers, and the team that’s in a wild-card spot will likely play either Vancouver, Colorado or Dallas and face a potentially tougher path to the Western Conference final if they get past the first round.

The Kings have gone 0-for-2 against the Oilers in the last two post-seasons, but they at least have a plus-1 goal differential in the three games they've played against Edmonton this season, going 1-1-1. While they're also 1-1-1 against the Canucks, they've been outscored 11-7 in their win and two losses against the Avalanche and 13-3 in three losses to the Stars. That makes these remaining games even more important.

Some fans prefer the comfort elite teams can provide when they’ve settled into a top playoff spot early in the season, but look at what happened with the Florida Panthers in the 2022-23 campaign: Florida had to win six of its final eight games to slip into a playoff position, yet they rode the momentum of the regular season through a Cup final. The same fate certainly could befall a low-seeded playoff team this year.

All in all, you can see why the NHL doesn’t want to move away from its current standings points system – with three weeks left to play, more than two-thirds of the league have meaningful regular-season games ahead of them. That should sell more tickets and boost the NHL’s financial bottom line, and that’s the name of the game for the league. 

Crunch time has indeed arrived, and the entertainment product is better for it.