Lighting the Lamp: Ovechkin might be a robot, Jets soar high in NHL and more

Lighting the Lamp is a year-round NHL column. This week, Alexander Ovechkin might be a robot, the Winnipeg Jets are soaring high and the playoff race nears its end.

One more week.

The NHL regular season will come to a close on Saturday, April 7, and we’ll finally know which Super 16 teams will live on to fight another day.

The Eastern Conference playoff race, however, is virtually decided, even if the seeds are ever-shifting. Right now, the Boston Bruins (110 points), Tampa Bay Lightning (108 points), Washington Capitals (101 points), Toronto Maple Leafs (101 points) and Pittsburgh Penguins (96 points) have all locked down their playoff berths.

That means the Atlantic Division has its three teams set, and the Metropolitan Division is almost there, with the Columbus Blue Jackets (94 points), Philadelphia Flyers (94 points) and New Jersey Devils (93 points) battling it out for the third division berth.

As for the West, it’s still wild. The Central Division is a little calmer, as the Nashville Predators (113 points) and Winnipeg Jets (106 points) have clinched two of the three spots. But in the Pacific, only the Vegas Golden Knights (107 points) have locked down their spot.

Full NHL standings as of Monday morning can be found here, and these are what the matchups would be if the playoffs started today.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

NHL power rankings

Best NHL expansion franchises

1. Vegas Golden Knights
2. Florida Panthers
3. St. Louis Blues
4. California Golden Seals (for the logo and colorway alone)
5. Philadelphia Flyers
6. Los Angeles Kings
7. Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
8. Minnesota North Stars
9. Pittsburgh Penguins
10. Atlanta Flames

Lamp Lighters: The week’s best goals

If baseball is your thing, you were obviously hyped about Opening Day this past week. So too, apparently, was the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby, who batted his own puck out of midair for the overtime game-winner against the New Jersey Devils:

In true showy Vegas style, the Golden Knights’ William Karlsson showed off with a shorthanded between-the-legs goal:

The Boston Bruins missed Jake DeBrusk dearly for eight games as he dealt with an upper-body injury, but he made his presence known as he returned to the lineup Saturday against the Florida Panthers with his first of two goals, below:

This, by Tyson Jost, is the hockey equivalent of an interception return for an 80-yard touchdown:

The Arizona Coyotes’ Trevor Murphy may have gone undrafted, but he’s making the most of his opportunities in The Show. After being recalled from AHL Tuscon in mid-March, Murphy didn’t waste much time notching his first NHL goal, which was like buttah:

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

• The Winnipeg Jets are flying high. As Sportsnet Stats pointed out, the Jets will have home ice advantage in a home playoff series for the first time in more than 30 years.

• Alexander Ovechkin, possibly a robot, logged his 1,000th game with the Washington Capitals:

5-on-5

1. Scott Foster is my favorite story to come out of the NHL this season. It doesn’t even matter so much that the daytime accountant helped lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a win in an emergency situation over the playoff-bound Winnipeg Jets. Just getting the chance to step into that crease is an accomplishment in and of itself. Foster’s big night has also galvanized the beer league community in Chicago, including his contemporaries who suit up at Johnny’s IceHouse near the United Center. “Boys, we can still make it. This is proof. Johnny’s is a gateway to the Hawks,” Foster’s teammates said as they watched him on TV, per ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.

2. Sometimes it’s just not meant to be between certain players and certain teams…but Bruins fans have to be watching Tyler Seguin’s success with the Dallas Stars with a certain degree of envy. Seguin notched 40 goals for the first time in his career this past week and is a legitimate contender for the Rocket Richard Trophy.

3. The Hart Trophy conversation is heating up to the point that it’s now reached a boil. It’s not simply that people disagree on who deserves the honor; in a more existential sense, people can’t even agree on the spirit of the award. Of course, the award itself invites such in-fighting; “the player judged to be the most valuable to his team” is about as subjective a set of criteria as you can get. Wyshynski has been leading the charge against Connor McDavid, given that the Edmonton Oilers are currently nearly 20 points out of the wild card race. Others argue that the most valuable player is the most valuable player, hard stop. McDavid leads the league with 103 points; the Bolts’ Nikita Kucherov is the next closest, with 97. But if we’re going to be subjective, let’s be subjective — this award doesn’t have to be a points race. Which team would be out of the playoff race without a certain player? Is it the Bruins and Brad Marchand? The Avalanche and Nathan MacKinnon? The Devils and Taylor Hall?

4. President’s Trophy watch: Can the Lightning play spoiler to the Predators and Bruins? Nashville is up three points on Boston with one fewer game to go (three versus four). But if Tampa Bay can win out its final three games, things could get very interesting. The Bruins and Lightning face off on Tuesday.

5. It’s the end of an era. Dan Marrazza, who ran the Vegas Golden Knights’ entertaining and, at times, controversial Twitter account, stepped down at the beginning of March. While it is always hard to tell how much of a team’s social “voice” is created in a boardroom by executives and how much is organically from the person running the account, it was clear that Marrazza ran things with a go big or go home mentality. Hate it or love it, he gave the Golden Knights a personality as big as their wins column. Hail to thee, Dan Marrazza! Bird thou never wert.

Tweet of the week

#NotAprilFools

Next: Which NHL mascot would you want with you in a bar fight?

How are you liking Lighting the Lamp so far? Is there something you want to see more of? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @MichelleBruton. Want more hockey? Follow @FanSidedNHL on Twitter.