Even though they are still five games remaining in the NHL regular season, we now know which teams will be participating in the Western Conference playoffs.
With their 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night the Colorado Avalanche were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention. That means the Minnesota Wild, who were shut out by the San Jose Sharks, 3-0, get the second wild-card spot in the West.
The Western Conference playoff field for the 2016 playoffs will include:
Central Division: Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks
Pacific Division: Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks
Wild cards: Nashville Predators, Minnesota Wild
With the Predators and Wild locked in to their two wild-card spots, the only thing left to determine at this point is what order the other teams will finish within their divisions.
Minnesota, as the second wild card team, will play the division winner with the best record (it will likely be whoever wins the Central) while Nashville will play the other division winner (the Pacific winner). The Stars and Blues are currently tied for the top spot in the Central Division with 105 points each, while the Ducks and Kings are in a tight race for the Pacific Division crown.
For Minnesota the playoff spot completes what has to be considered a pretty successful turnaround following the in-season coaching change that saw John Torchetti come in and replace Mike Yeo. At that point the Wild were three points out of a playoff spot (with three teams ahead of them) and had recently lost eight in a row and 14 out of their previous 15.
Since then the team has gone 16-9-1 and has seen its offense do a complete 180 from where it was just prior to the coaching change.
As for the Avalanche, well, it has to be a bitter end to another disappointing season under Patrick Roy. It is not only a very flawed team beyond its top four or five core players with a bad defense, but they ended up falling short of the postseason after giving up two draft picks and three prospects for rentals leading up to the trade deadline to bring in Mikkel Boedker, Shawn Matthias and Eric Gelinas.
With the Western Conference playoffs set, the only playoff spots up for grabs are in the Eastern Conference where the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers are competing for two spots.
