Race to the Playoffs: NHL Wildcard Projections & Odds.

We're now heading into the final month of the NHL Regular Season and there's still so much to play for. Both the Eastern Conference & Western Conference have extremely tight playoff/wildcard races at the moment and there's only 7-10 games remaining. Let's take a deeper look at the standings at this moment. 

Atlantic:
1. Tampa Bay Lightning (98)
2. Buffalo Sabres (98)
3. Montreal Canadiens (94)

Metropolitan:
1. Carolina Hurricanes (98)
2. Pittsburgh Penguins (90)
3. New York Islanders (89)

Wildcard:
1. Boston Bruins (92)
2. Columbus Blue Jackets (88)
Ottawa Senators (86)
Detroit Red Wings (86)
Philadelphia Flyers (86)
Washington Capitals (83)

Considering that only two teams make the postseason after the top three in each division, we're going to see plenty of movement between these teams over the last half of a month. Washington owned the best record in the entire Eastern Conference last year and badly needs wins to catch up. Florida (b2b champs,) NYR & Toronto are all not even going to make it. This should be a stellar April of hockey and may the best teams get in at the end of it all. 

Central:
1. Colorado Avalanche (108)
2. Dallas Stars (100)
3. Minnesota Wild (94)

Pacific:
1. Anaheim Ducks (87)
2. Edmonton Oilers (83)
3. Vegas Golden Knights (82)

Wildcard:
1. Utah Mammoth (82)
2. Nashville Predators (77)
Los Angeles Kings (76)
Seattle Kraken (75)
San Jose Sharks (75)
Winnipeg Jets (74)
St. Louis Blues (73)

How lucky some of these teams are to be in the Western Conference opposed to in the Eastern Conference. Although this race is as tight, if not even tighter than the Eastern Conference's race, the points are definitely much weaker. As a matter of fact, if Ottawa, Detroit or Philadelphia was in the Pacific, they'd all be in 2nd in the division. As it stands right now, those teams are out. With the poor seasons from this conference, the Jets (last year's President's Trophy winner,) the Blues, the Sharks, the Kraken and the Kings all still very much have hope. I'm extremely excited to see this out.

Burns' Best Bet: (Make ASAP.) - via. DraftKings Sportsbook .

New York Islanders to make the Playoffs (YES at -120.) Currently 3rd in the Metro division, the Islanders are lucky to be in this division rather than in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins, who are in a wildcard spot, are the unlucky ones at the moment being in the tougher division. Yes, the Blue Jackets, Flyers & Capitals are all in the Metro too, who are in the race currently. But, I believe that the Islanders are simply the strongest out of those teams at the moment and have been throughout the season. Holding an advantage like this with only a handful of games left, I believe that this is excellent value for NYI to be involved in the 2025-26 postseason.