We’re two weeks away from the playoffs, which means it’s time to feel a sense of irrational panic over any team that isn’t red hot.
The key word here is “irrational,” because as we’ve covered before, seeding and home ice don’t matter as much as you’d think in today’s NHL and late-season momentum means even less. As long as you make the playoffs, whatever happens down the stretch isn’t all that important. Usually. Sometimes. You know what, that applies to everyone but your team, you are all in trouble.
See? Irrational panic is fun. And as we close out the schedule, here are five teams that I’m starting to worry about.
Bonus Five: Playoff teams I’m getting worried about
5. Nashville Predators — This feels like a weird pick, since they’re still not all that far removed from that epic 18-game point streak. But since it ended, they’re just 2-4-0, a stretch that included two games where they’ve been shut out and two where they gave up seven goals or more. That feels like a bad combination, and while it hasn’t threatened their playoff hopes, it’s made them feel a lot less invincible than they did just two weeks ago.
4. Winnipeg Jets — There was a time when the Jets were right there with the Stars and Avalanche in the Central debate, and even a few weeks where they were above them. Not lately, with a six-game losing streak pushing them down to third in the division. They snapped that this week and had won 14 of 19 before that, with a five-game losing streak coming before that. In other words, this team might just be especially streaky, which isn’t the worst thing to be in a league where getting hot in the playoffs is everything. With road games against the Predators, Stars and Avalanche this week, we’ll get a sense of exactly where the Jets are at.
3. Vancouver Canucks — After rolling over the league for the first 50 games of the season, the Canucks have won just 13 of 27 since. Some of this is the Thatcher Demko injury, and they’re still likely to finish first in Pacific, but this team hasn’t been great for two months now. Again, I’m putting it out there for Vancouver fans to get their head around: You are not going to enjoy seeing how many “experts” go against the Canucks in their playoff picks. Get your nobody-believes-in-us narratives started now.
2. Philadelphia Flyers — I’m a little hesitant to include the Flyers here, if only because I did say we were listing playoff teams and, well … you know. But they have to be here because no team in the league with anything to play for has gone as cold as the Flyers, who’ve lost seven straight. The losing streak is bad enough, especially when they’re dropping games to the Blue Jackets, but the Flyers haven’t strung together even two straight wins since the second week of February. It’s all coincided with the latest installment of the John Tortorella Show, a long-running drama in which the veteran coach benches somebody or insults his own team or offers up a self-aggrandizing sound bite. When his team wins, he gets a pass. His team isn’t winning right now, and it looks like it will cost them the playoff spot they’ve spent all year clinging to.
1. Florida Panthers — Three weeks ago I called them the league’s new villains, in part because they were so good. Apparently they took that personally because they’ve been bad ever since. They’ve lost nine of their last 12, including Saturday’s OT loss to Boston. Even worse, that stretch has included losses to the Bruins (twice), Maple Leafs, Hurricanes, Lightning and Rangers, a group of teams that taken together are pretty much the entire path out of the Eastern Conference. Panthers fans know this may not matter because last year they had their coach throwing tantrums around this time and ultimately backed into the playoffs, and that turned out fine. But for a team that looked like it was hitting its stride just a few weeks ago, all sorts of warning signs are…
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