You know all those photos and videos of folks lined up a million deep at airports last month? It was hard to see those and not feel a sort of ambient discomfort yourself, imagining the stress of being one of those travelers. I know I could only think about how frustrated, anxious, confused, and squished I would feel if I, too, were stuck in that mass of humanity.
With that in mind, check out how crunched the chases for the final playoff spots have become in both conferences, with fewer than 10 games remaining in the NHL regular season. These guys are all close enough to smell each other’s breath.
That’s a lot of teams lined up for an eight seed, and most of them are going to miss their flight. (In this metaphor, I guess Paul Bissonnette is ICE, because he’s getting paid to hang around and watch all this, and doesn’t contribute in any way, and I don’t want him there.) With the very best squads in the league shoring up their spots higher in the standings (the Touchless PreCheck class), this last stretch of the schedule is all about the salt-of-the-earth strivers.
It’s a lot to keep track of on a night like Thursday, when nearly the whole NHL was in action, and trying to follow all the different scenarios is disorienting enough on its own. But what makes this part of the season a particular odyssey is that, in a league where 16 teams make the playoffs, the ones below the postseason cut-off line are by definition below average. This drama is all about deeply flawed rosters who badly need to win. It’s not the prettiest hockey you’ve ever seen, but it is among the most desperate.
This is a time when the San Jose Sharks can rip off a four-game win streak that involves a couple of last-minute steals over the Blues and Blue Jackets. It’s when the Detroit Red Wings can go into franchise freefall, encouraging fans to grab their pitchfork-sharpeners out of their cabinets, then steady themselves by nabbing a win over the Flyers just a few days after getting schooled by them. And it’s when the most important game of a packed night is a clash between the 10th-place Predators and ninth-place Kings that goes all the way until 2 a.m. on the East Coast—about as late and suspenseful a slumber party as you’re ever going to get without the unlimited overtimes of the playoffs.
The Kings, who beat the Blues in OT the prior night, own the most disgraceful record of any team still in playoff contention—30 wins against 45 losses, and just 19 of those regulation wins—but they are still in the picture because they’ve racked up loser points. The Predators have a few more victories thanks to a decent March warm streak, but they spent the prior year-and-a-half acting the role of the NHL’s biggest flop after a splashy free-agent summer. Both boast rosters that, on paper, shape up like reasonable eight seeds. Neither of them are playing especially well. Naturally, this matchup got weird, and it got fun.
The Preds jumped on Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper from the puck drop, scoring two goals in four minutes and prompting the L.A. color commentator to remark, “Can’t get any worse. It really can’t.” It could. Nashville missed a penalty shot at the end of the period, after a wildly out-of-position Kuemper threw his stick to disrupt the play, but they achieved a 3-0 lead when Jonathan Marchessault netted his 12th of the season early in the second. When Adrian Kempe grabbed one back for the Kings, Ryan O’Reilly and Steven Stamkos combined for a quick response to make it 4-1 with half a game to play.
Time for Nashville to put it in cruise control? Of course not. Kuemper solidified in the crease and the home team mounted its comeback, netting two goals over a muscular stretch of play before the second intermission. For the equalizer, they manufactured some luck. Not long after the Preds failed to do anything on a power play, the Kings broke out from a defensive-zone faceoff and opened up a shot for Jared Wright. The puck went straight into the body of Juuse Saros, but the mercurial Nashville netminder didn’t get all of it. The biscuit trickled out behind him into the blue paint, and before Saros even had any idea where it was, Joel Armia scored the tap-in equalizer. For the Kings, this goal was the difference between ending the third period with 78 points on the year, or 79. In April, everybody is hyper-aware of how much that matters.
Nobody could find twine in overtime, but surely the shootout would provide a quick and definitive ending to this saga? Nah, come on, get with the program! Nobody could convert. At this point, it was late enough and I was feeling loopy enough that I started counting all the saves in a fast-talking auctioneer voice. I got one save, do I have two? Two, three, can I get four? Five saves, six saves, seven, do I see eight? EIGHT saves, how about nine, anybody got nine? I see 10 saves, do I see 11? I see 11, 12, 13, can we get to 14? Yes, 14 saves now, what about 15, do I have 15? Yes! Fifteen saves going once, going twice and … SOLD to the Nashville Predators. Luke Evangelista, the 16th overall shooter, was the one who finally cracked the tendies and grabbed the Preds the extra point.
A reasonable reaction to a game like this would be something like “Both these teams sure look mediocre.” That’s not wrong, but what gives these contests plenty of added drama is that they aren’t just playing for a playoff participation trophy. Time and again, even when they didn’t look so tough in the regular season, the last teams in have proven very dangerous. The Kings won the Cup as an eight seed in 2012. The Preds made it all the way to the Final as one in 2017. Since then, two Presidents’ Trophy winners have lost in the first round to heavy underdogs, including one—the Panthers—who used their upset as a springboard for a pretty incredible run of dominance. Three years ago, an inconsistent Florida team was in a spot just like this, needing every point they could get just to make their season last a little bit longer. Do any of these franchises in the wild card race have a similar surprise in them? They don’t look it right now. But two of them are going to get a chance to prove otherwise.