NHL playoff race nearly settled in Eastern conference, but wide open out West

Playoff races coming down to the final days and hours of an NHL season have largely been the norm in the league's salary cap era.

There's usually edge-of-your-seat moments as the schedule churns towards Game 82 and a handful of teams on the playoff bubble desperately claw for every last point in pursuit of one of the final spots.

It looks like that will once again be the case in the Western Conference. But the other side of the post-season bracket? That's been settled for quite some time.

The Eastern Conference has seen the same eight teams — the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins from the Atlantic Division, and the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals in the Metropolitan — occupy its playoff positions since Jan. 2.

The Detroit Red Wings were the last team outside that group to sit in a post-season spot when they resided in the East's second wild-card berth on New Year's Day. And even that wasn't an entirely accurate reflection because the Bruins had five games in hand due to a COVID-19 shutdown.

The West, meanwhile, has been more a classic story of jockeying for playoff positioning. Things have thinned out somewhat over the last week, but the Nashville Predators, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars were separated by just three points in the battle for West wild-card berths heading into Wednesday's action.

The Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks, meanwhile, have fallen off the pace and possess little margin for error sitting seven and nine points, respectively, back of the cutline.

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The Calgary Flames have some breathing room atop the Pacific Division, with the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles