Lighting the Lamp: Stanley Cup playoff race, NHL Awards consideration heats up

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Lighting the Lamp, a year-round NHL column. This week, the Stanley Cup playoffs roulette wheel keeps spinning, NHL Awards become more transparent, and more.

Clinching season is officially underway, and, surprising no one, the Nashville Predators became the NHL’s first team to punch their ticket to the postseason with a win over the Colorado Avalanche on March 16.

The Predators have the most points of any team in the league, with 104.

In the East, the Tampa Bay Lightning (102 points) clinched their playoff berth late Sunday night when the Anaheim Ducks defeated the New Jersey Devils.

Needless to say, the Lightning were extremely grateful to their out-of-conference friends for the assist:

Two spots may be spoken for, but there are still 14 up for grabs. And especially in the Western Conference, the race is heating up. Currently, the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars, with 86 and 84 points, respectively, control the two wild card spots.

But the St. Louis Blues, whom many had written off as dead in the water, clawed their way back into the conversation on Sunday night with an overtime win over the Chicago Blackhawks and now sit one point out of the playoff picture with 83 points.

The Calgary Flames are right there, as well, with 80 points.

The Atlantic Division in the East is the league’s most dominant division, locking up the East’s first three playoff seeds at the moment in sequential order. But the two wild cards in the East are currently slated to come out of the Metro Division.

NHL power rankings

Stanley Cup playoff teams if the season ended today

Western Conference

1. Nashville Predators (47-14-10, 104 pts)
2. Vegas Golden Knights (46-21-5, 97 pts)
3. Winnipeg Jets (43-19-10, 96 pts)
4. Minnesota Wild (41-24-7, 89 pts)
5. San Jose Sharks (40-23-9, 89 pts)
6. Los Angeles Kings (39-27-6, 84 pts)
7. WC Colorado Avalanche (39-25-8, 86 pts)
8. WC Dallas Stars (38-27-8, 84 pts)

Eastern Conference

1. Tampa Bay Lightning (49-19-4, 102 pts)
2. Boston Bruins (45-17-8, 98 pts)
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (43-22-7, 93 pts)
4. Washington Capitals (41-24-7, 89 pts)
5. Pittsburgh Penguins (41-26-5, 87 pts)
6. Philadelphia Flyers (37-25-11, 85 pts)
7. WC Columbus Blue Jackets (39-28-5, 83 pts)
8. WC New Jersey Devils (37-26-8, 82 pts)

Lamp Lighters: The week’s best goals

Perhaps the most important goal scored in the NHL last week was this one from the Winnipeg Jets’ Paul Stastny:

Sure, it was a great goal by Stastny. But arguably more important than the goal itself was the assist by Patrik Laine to give him his 14th consecutive game with a point — and thus break the NHL record for points by a teenager, previously held by Nathan MacKinnon.

Speaking of Laine, he showed off that fire wrist shot again on Sunday with this goal against the Dallas Stars:

On Sunday night, the Blackhawks’ Alex DeBrincat scored a hat trick against the St. Louis Blues:

The Philadelphia Flyers’ Oskar Lindbloom, an SHL star who has failed to produce the points in The Show, finally earned his first NHL goal on Sunday:

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ Andreas Johnsson got to experience that feeling, as well, on Saturday, and his joy was contagious:

Coast to Coast: What you might have missed around the league

• The Pro Hockey Writer’s Association finally got the memo and voted to reveal member’s ballots for the annual NHL Awards, which virtually everyone wanted.
• The goalie interference rule is threatening to ruin the experience of watching hockey, and the GMs know it. They are meeting this week to discuss the criteria, in addition to how offsides are interpreted on video review.
• If you don’t already know that the Washington Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin gained entry into the league’s coveted 600 club, you’ve been living under a rock — but did you see the team’s tribute video to him before its clash with the New York Islanders?
• The Winnipeg Jets defeated the Dallas Stars 4-2 on Sunday but were dealt another injury blow, losing defenseman Jacob Trouba in the third period on a hard hit by Dallas’ Jamie Benn.
• The Detroit Red Wings are now the owners of the league’s most shameful streak — with their loss to the Colorado Avalanche Sunday, they’ve now dropped 10 in a row.

5-on-5

1. NHL Awards: Transparency is always a good thing, but I wonder if it’s possible that revealing members’ votes in the NHL Awards ceremony could actually impact the way they vote more. Theoretically, the move should push voters to be more objective. But will their votes reflect what they think the fans in their markets want them to do?
2. St. Louis Blues: Are the Blues for real? Losing Vladimir Tarasenko on Saturday should have closed the book on their playoff push for good, and yet the team rallied behind captain Alex Pietrangelo on Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks to eke out a gutty 5-4 win in overtime. Pietrangelo had four points, including three assists. Most have counted them out, but the Blues could be a thorn in someone’s side in the quarterfinals if they can earn a wild card.
3. Ryan Donato: This kid is special. The Boston Bruins’ prospect, selected in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, elected to leave Harvard as a junior to join his hometown team, growing up in nearby Scituate, Massachusetts. Donato joins the fray at the right time for the Bruins, who are trying to stay sharp without top-six forwards Patrice Bergeron and David Backes and top-pairing defensemen Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy. Watch him score a hat trick for the Crimson here.
4. Goaltender interference: Figure this one out, guys. The NFL has “What is a catch?” and now the NHL has “What is goaltender interference?” It’s a terrible look for the league when sloppy criteria applied incorrectly mucks up the outcome of games.
5. Brayden Schenn’s no-goal: The Blues were able to beat the Hawks in overtime, but they shouldn’t have had to. Even if the the officials didn’t deem this a goal, they blew the play dead right as Schenn shot the puck in:

Tweet of the week

Presented without further comment:

Since this is the inaugural edition of Lighting the Lamp, I welcome your feedback! Is there something you want to see more of? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @MichelleBruton.