With such a brief season this year, making the Stanley Cup playoffs is not only more difficult, but also more important.  In an average NHL season there’s plenty of time for teams to figure each other out, figure themselves out, and still make a good run for the playoffs even if they had a horrible start to the season.  This year, however, with the season cut almost in half there’s very little margin for error.  Again, in a normal season by the time playoffs come around it’s a pretty well-known fact who will play in the playoffs but with points fluctuating so much game to game right now, pretty much anyone still has playoff potential.  Except the Florida Panthers.

With that being said, there are still a few dead-giveaway teams that everyone expects to see in the playoffs.  The Chicago Blackhawks will definitely be there.  Although they did finally lose, and have lost a few since; they’re still by far the league’s best team.  Playing neck-in-neck are the Anaheim Ducks who will also represent the Western conference in a top spot.  If the playoffs were to start tomorrow, instead of in a month, I’d say all the currently seeded teams would be a definite go and all have a serious chance of winning the cup.

However, there are a few teams either at the bottom of the list or not even on it that I think have some comeback potential.

Currently both the New York Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes are battling for the eighth seed spot in the East and I think both teams would be viable options.  Despite dropping some rather easy games here and there (who hasn’t though?) the Rangers have been having a pretty decent season overall.  Their record, 15-13-2, is very misleading as they’re a strong team with great puck possession.  If they want to get into playoff position though they need to step up their offense and quit relying so heavily on goalie, Henrik Lundqvist.  Although Lundqvist makes a ton of saves and is an overall workhorse he cannot continue to carry the whole team; the Rangers really need to start scoring some goals and using their power plays.  Carolina automatically has a better advantage to advance to the playoffs just by being in one of the worst divisions, the Southeast.  They’ve battled back and forth recently for the top spot against the Jets but even if they don’t advance to the playoffs for being the division leader, they’ve still earned a lot of points this season.  Also with a 15-13-2 record, the Hurricanes are much better at scoring and maintaining puck control.  I’d be surprised if they aren’t still playing in April

There are three other teams that although not currently seeded also have playoff potential.  First off, just barely missing 8th seed, are the Columbus Blue Jackets.  It must be noted that although only 13-12-6, they are in the league’s hardest division against teams like Chicago and Detroit.  The Jackets have been on a big point streak and don’t seem to be slowing down which is great for them.  They need to just keep winning and getting points and they’ll find themselves a playoff spot. 

Hanging just behind Columbus, also in the tough Central division, are the Nashville Predators.  While I’m not as confident about them making the playoffs, they too are only a few points shy.  The biggest thing the Predators need to work on for the next month though is scoring goals.   A normally high-scoring team, they’ve been pretty lackluster in that department this season which attributes to their lower positioning.  A slew of injuries and a league-high 18 road games doesn’t help either.  Their true potential should be an easier read within the next week or so when they’ve played some more home games and can make more concrete decisions about the upcoming trade deadline.   

The last team that I believe still has potential to make the playoffs would be the Edmonton Oilers.  The Oilers have one of the most promising groups of players and were this a full season would undoubtedly be in the playoffs; everyone expected them there anyway.  They have one of the leagues worst records right now but have come up with some pretty big wins so far, like against the Blackhawks mid-March.  If the youngins can start working together a little better and the Oilers pull of a couple more big wins I think they’ll have earned themselves a place in the Western Conference playoff tournament.