Gaining ground in the Eastern Conference is harder than ever right now
For most of the first half of the season, the fight for playoff positioning in the Eastern Conference was as prominent as it had ever been before in the current four-division format.
However, things have started to open up a bit.
With teams in both the Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions starting to find their grooves, and lesser teams falling off, the gap between the top eight and the rest of the conference is beginning to widen as we head toward the Olympic break.
As of Friday, the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens are tied for fourth in the Atlantic, holding the two Wild Card positions in the East. The Florida Panthers are currently eight points back, though they games in hand. The Washington Capitals, who are also eight back of a WC spot, are actually closer to the top three in the Metro, but need to string some wins together to get back into the hunt.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton explain why teams are struggling to gain ground on the Wild Card spots in the East.
Tyler Yaremchuk: It is so hard to gain ground in the Eastern Conference when every team around you is winning. You feel for a team like Columbus, in a sense, but it also illustrates Toronto, who has now lost four in a row. Philly’s lost three in a row. Travis Konecny comes out yesterday, he was pissed off when talking to the media. These teams that are on losing streaks…I think you can kiss their seasons goodbye. Again, Columbus goes 6-1, and they are further out of a playoff spot than when that streak started. Crazy.
Carter Hutton: Then you look at last night. The teams that did find ways to win hockey games. Montreal Canadiens beat the Colorado Avalanche. All these other Carolina wins. Pittsburgh wins. Islanders win. So it’s hard to really gain any ground…Then, if you look at Florida. That was a really tough loss last night, in my opinion, for the Florida Panthers. You fight back. Tkachuk’s able to score two goals in under two minutes to get his first two of the year. Then, you lose on a late goal. These are back-breaking points. When I look at Toronto and I look at some of these teams that are sputtering now, it feels like they’re not going to be able to catch up because these other teams in the playoffs seem to get points every single night.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…