Kick off your shoes and bring out your skates, hockey fans! The National Hockey League playoffs are around the corner! The most talented hockey players in the world are set for another chance at winning the Stanley Cup. The last game of the regular season is on April 6th and the playoffs begin a few days later, which run right through the middle of April up to the middle of June. The Stanley Cup champion title lies with the Washington Capitals who defeated the Vegas Golden Knights just last year. For those of you new to one of the most active sports, The Stanley Cup playoffs is an elimination tournament that consists of sixteen of the thirty-one league teams making the playoffs, eight from each conference. Per each conference, the top three teams of both divisions and two wildcard teams make the playoffs. Resulting in eight first-round matchups. Four rounds of best-of-seven series where teams fight to take the Stanley Cup Champions title. The conferences divide as Eastern and Western with two divisions among each respective one. In the Eastern conferences, there’s the Metropolitan and Atlantic; meanwhile, in the Western, there’s the Central and the Pacific. The season has been a very active one, intense games, teams racking up points left and right. Whether you are into the sport for its intensity or just for the fun of it, make sure you catch your favourite teams play at the chance to win and become this year’s new champions.

Whale’s NHL Playoff Outlook

In each respective conference, there are the top teams to look out for in the race for a spot in the playoffs. At the moment, from the Eastern Conference in the Atlantic division, the Tampa Bay Lightning has officially snatched a spot in the playoffs with one-hundred and twelve points and is the favourite to win the division this year. Teams right behind the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic division as well, are the Boston Bruins with ninety-three points and the Toronto Maple Leafs with ninety-one points. Whilst in the Metropolitan division, the leading teams are the Washington Capitals with ninety-one points, the New York Islanders with eighty-nine points and the Pittsburgh Penguins with eighty-seven points.

Meanwhile, in the Western Conference, the top teams leading into the playoffs in the Central division we have the Winnipeg Jets with eighty-six points, the Nashville Predators with eighty-five points, and the St. Louis Blues with eighty-one points. For those not amused, in the Pacific division, in the lead is the Calgary with ninety-five points, right behind the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lastly, there’s the San Jose with ninety-four points and Vegas with eighty-three points.

Then there is also the Wild Cards! Which is when two slots for each conference go to the teams with the most points totalled during the regular season. As it looks this season, in the Eastern Division it’s coming down to the Carolina Hurricanes and the Columbus Blue Jackets, whilst in the Western division, we have the Dallas Stars and the Arizona Coyotes. Make sure you tune in and support your teams and experience their journey towards the playoffs or make your way to one of the arenas across the United States and see one live!
Here’s a link to check out this year’s standings:

Whales Recommendations on Key Players to Watch in the NHL

A lot of chatter and buzz is going around the seasons favourite players. Talk is going around of the league leaders of this year’s season. The top offensive leaders recognized at the moment are Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Alex Ovechkin from the Washington Capitals and Kucheron is one of the teams most active players and best in the league, he has one-hundred and fifteen points this year alone, has made eighty assists and has scored thirty-five goals. Then, Ovechkin has scored forty-six goals and has seventy-nine points. Then the goaltending leaders which are Jordan Binnington from the St. Louis Blues, Ben Bishop from the Dallas Stars, and Marc-Andre Fleury from the Vegas Golden Knights. Binnington has 1.77 goals against average and Bishop has a save percentage of .933, which has been remarkable throughout the entirety of the season. Lastly, in the goaltending leaders, we have Fleury, which has thirty-five wins up to now and a total of eight shutouts.

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