Western Wild Card Chaos

Looking at the Central and Pacific Playoff battles out West.

With the playoffs creeping up and the Wildcard Battles begin to brew, here’s an insider's look at the madness in the Western Conference. Tomorrow we will be taking a look at the East.

CENTRAL

Nashville and Colorado feel like safe bets right now while Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg are all fighting it out for that 3rd seed which will put two of them in a very heated Wild Card battle.

Central TOP 3 PREDICTION

Predators

Avalanche

Wild (flipped coin, but they deserve it for the number of line loads they do!)

PACIFIC

The only thing I’m predicting is that the Kings are taking home the division title. After that, the Sharks are heads and shoulders above everyone in the league so if their backup Dreidger can play well enough they should take the runner-up title. After that, you have 4 teams that have shots at the 3rd position. The Oilers have struggled since acquiring Bishop but you have to think that Bishop is due to turn things around and that lineup is going to get them into that final slot. That leaves the Flames, Knights, and Coyotes joining a wild card chase that is going to be one heck of a showdown.

Pacific TOP 3 PREDICTION

Kings

Sharks

Oilers

WILD CARD

The Jets brought in Burns and Chara to solidify the blue line and Marleau and Thornton have made great additions on the bottom 6 and they are a very very solid team built to win and have all the pieces to do it.

The Knights have been turning it on as of late winning 9 of 10 and have been the league's hottest team as of late. Is another Vegas Miracle Run just starting? Who knows, we have seen crazier things happen with the Knights.

Injuries have ravaged the Flames who have lost their MVP McAvoy as well as Koivu for the regular season. Adding Stamkos and some defensive help at the deadline gives them a shot to sneak in but Price is going to need to play better and the team in general needs to pick it up if it doesn’t want to see the playoffs slip them by.

The Stars are on the road for 10 of the final 15 games and Texas has been much kinder to the Stars than the road where they are below .500 for the season. It’s been a heck of a run in Dallas, but they are going to have to really earn it if they want into the dance.

In Arizona Holtby has been a very nice addition to the lineup and the Coyotes continue to stick around in the wild card race. They have underperformed this season but have the talent to make some noise.

As for who is going to sneak in, who knows. The Jets are too strong and should take the 1st Wild Card spot while Calgary squeaks by the Knights. The road becomes too big of an obstacle for Dallas and Arizona fades into the desert.