Whoever gets the East's second wild-card spot and third place in the Metropolitan Division is still anyone's guess, as almost every team battling for them has stumbled, says Adam Proteau.

In the NHL’s Western Conference, the race for a playoff spot is more or less over. It's the complete opposite in the Eastern Conference. 

With about two weeks left in the regular season, the East has a whopping seven teams that are somehow in the fight to lock up the final wild-card spot. Four of them are also still in contention for third place in the Metropolitan Division. 

But it’s not as if those seven teams – the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres – are putting pressure on their opponents. To the contrary, just about every one of those teams is stumbling into the season's final stretch.

The Flyers have only won twice in their last 10 games. The Islanders have cancelled out all but one win since Feb. 26 with a loss. The Red Wings only have four wins since March 1. 

Meanwhile, for all the disappointments the Penguins, Devils and Sabres have dealt with this season, the slumps from the teams above them have given them an outside shot at a huge comeback to sneak into the playoffs. That said, they've each only won five games out of their last 10, and they'll need a winning streak to catch up.

Only the Capitals have a decent mark in their last 10 games of 6-3–1, but even then, they’ve lost three straight games and dropped four of their last seven (3-3-1). 

It’s clear why the playoff race is so tight in the East. Only four standings points separate the Wings, Islanders, Flyers and Capitals. Winning this race and locking up eighth place in the conference will earn a post-season date with either the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins or Florida Panthers. And whoever gets the third spot in the Metropolitan Division will face either the Rangers or Hurricanes.

Needless to say, the higher-seeded franchise should be heavy favorites in any Eastern Conference matchup involving the second wild-card team or third-place Metro squad. 

This is not to say upsets can’t happen. Certainly, it happened just last season when the eighth-ranked Panthers knocked off the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Bruins after barely squeaking into the playoffs. They then went on to the Cup final. So it is possible.

But really, if you’ve been watching how the potential Eastern wild-card teams have played of late, you shouldn’t be confident they could upset a higher-ranked squad. There’s still time for them to build some momentum, but in the handful of games they do have remaining, there must be a sense of desperation that just hasn’t been there for them at the moment. The Panthers did convert that desperation into a deep playoff run last season, but it’s just as likely that the wild cards could be eliminated in the first round.

There’s much to like on the Wings, Capitals, Flyers, Islanders, Sabres, Devils and Penguins. But there does seem to be a higher quality of depth separating the top five teams in the Eastern Conference from the rest. The regular season is all about consistency, and the Panthers, Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Rangers and Hurricanes have been consistently better than the rest of the East’s teams.

For that reason, we still think the wild-card teams (including the Tampa Bay Lightning, which pretty much have the first wild-card slot locked up) will fall against higher-seeded opponents. They’re all flawed groups, and their current stretch of lackluster hockey underscores the faults that are likely to sink them. Whichever that second wild-card team and third-place Metropolitan seed will be is anyone's guess.