The Stanley Cup Playoff race is heating up out West with only three weeks to go in the regular season. And while things are getting tight, the Dallas Stars are still very much in the race. Let’s take a look at the way things are shaping up right now.
Only 23 days separate the Dallas Stars from the end of their 2017-18 regular season campaign. Immediately following that, the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin. Will the Stars be included? That is the question.
Throughout the 2017-18 season, the Western Conference standings have ultimately been a crapshoot. That’s still holding true to this day, and that makes the homestretch even more exciting to follow.
At the moment, there are 11 teams still realistically in the Western Conference playoff race. Only the Arizona Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks, and Chicago Blackhawks are either considered “too far gone” or have been mathematically eliminated. But for the rest of the West, anything can happen.
And it goes for both divisions as well. Besides Nashville and Winnipeg in the Central and Vegas in the Pacific, all of the other teams still competing are within a few points of each other. With somewhere between 11-13 games to go for each team in the race, the playoff push is red-hot.
We’ve known this for the past few weeks, but it’s getting down to where every point truly matters.
In the middle of the Central Division and Western Conference race sits the Dallas Stars. And though they have hit some significant bumps in the past few games, they are still very much involved in the push to the postseason. Will they find a way to punch their ticket over the next 11 games? It is anyone’s guess considering how unpredictable they have played this season.
But as of right now, the Stars own the first wild card spot in the West. They are two points out of third place in the Central Division and one point away from being outside of the playoff wall. So even though it seems that everything has gone wrong for Dallas over the last few months, they are still very involved in the race.
Here is a look at all that is going on around the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference wild card push.
Western Conference Wild Card Race
1. Dallas Stars 11 GR 83 PTS 34 ROW
2. Colorado Avalanche 13 GR 82 PTS 36 ROW
3. Anaheim Ducks 11 GR 82 PTS 31 ROW
4. Calgary Flames 11 GR 80 PTS 33 ROW
5. St. Louis Blues 13 GR 79 PTS 34 ROW
That’s right. Four points separating five teams along with a few games in hand here or there. So while the Stars do own sole control of the first wild card spot, some teams below them have some catching up to do.
Dallas Stars
Let’s play the situation game for a second. Assume that the season ends at 71 games. That means the Stars, Ducks, and Flames are done while the Avalanche and Blues have two games to go. Assuming that they win both of their final two games, they would claim the final wild card spots and Dallas would be bumped from the postseason picture. But say the Blues go 1-0-1. That would give the Stars the necessary space to qualify for the playoffs.
So there are few situations at this very moment where Dallas misses the playoffs. They currently own possession of a playoff spot and still control much of their own destiny. And while they don’t have as powerful of a grasp as they did, they still own it.
By next weekend, every team will be caught up with the Stars, and there’s no telling what the standings will look like at that point. Colorado and St. Louis meet up with each other tonight, while the Avs also play Nashville, Los Angeles, and Vegas in that span. The Blues will also meet up with Boston and Columbus over the next ten days.
And while they play out those contests, the Stars will have their own hands full. That’s where the pressure comes in. While Dallas controls its own destiny, that can be a scary thought considering how shaky their play has been lately. But it is also a great opportunity to prove their playoff worthiness down the stretch.
But at the moment, nothing is certain in the Western Conference. The Dallas Stars are a playoff team at the moment but have a lot of work to do if they want to keep that title.
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This next week might make the postseason picture clearer or fog it up entirely. That’s just how the West is going this year.
It will be interesting to see what the Stars have left in the tank.