The Western Conference playoff race enters one of its final weeks with the standings as tight as ever. What do the Dallas Stars and their fellow competitors have to look forward to this week?
Another week of the regular season is on deck for the Dallas Stars and the rest of the Western Conference.
It’s Mar. 5, 2018, which means there are only 35 days left in the 2017-18 NHL regular season. That translates out to exactly five weeks remaining, including the current one. That’s not a lot of time.
And yet, it still seems like any number of things could happen in the Western Conference playoff race. That’s partly due to the tightness of the standings as well as the extensive number of teams still involved.
There are eight points separating eight teams between the Central Division and Pacific Division. That’s a lot considering the time remaining in the season continues quickly ticking away.
Dallas Stars
Sitting in the middle of the race is the Dallas Stars. With a record of 37-23-5 with 79 points in 65 games, the Stars own sole control of the first wild card spot. Before Minnesota beat Detroit yesterday and picked up two points, Dallas sat in third place in the Central.
The positions are constantly juggling as every game becomes more and more crucial. Teams currently in playoff spots like the Stars need wins to lock themselves in as playoff contenders while teams on the bubble need wins to claw back into the picture. It’s a delicate balance that seems to constantly change in both divisions. And where will the Dallas Stars fall by game 82? Your guess is as good as ours.
The Stars have shown significant promise over the past few games. They have rallied in certain situations and picked up valuable points in the process. But the rest of the West is keeping up in one way or another and not making it easy on Dallas by any means. Any slip up by the Stars could prove to be critical.
And that’s where another challenging week for Dallas could come into play. The Dallas Stars have four games on tap this week, and the results could very well make or break their season.
But what are the teams around them doing? Are they in a similar corner as Dallas or do they have a walk in the park that will only make the Stars’ trek to the postseason more difficult?
As of Monday morning, here are the standings out West.
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Central Division
1. Nashville Predators 65 GP 93 PTS
2. Winnipeg Jets 65 GP 87 PTS
3. Minnesota Wild 66 GP 81 PTS
Pacific Division
1. Vegas Golden Knights 65 GP 89 PTS
2. San Jose Sharks 66 GP 79 PTS
3. Anaheim Ducks 66 GP 78 PTS
Wild Card Race
1. Dallas Stars (Central) 65 GP 79 PTS
2. Los Angeles Kings (Pacific) 66 GP 77 PTS
3. Colorado Avalanche 65 GP 76 PTS
4. St. Louis Blues 66 GP 75 PTS
5. Calgary Flames 66 GP 73 PTS
Here’s a breakdown of what each of the eight teams in the Western Conference race have on their plates over the next seven days. Feel free to reference back to this whenever you need it over the next week when trying to compare how a team’s results will affect the Stars.