Disappointment — perhaps even heartbreak — is on tap for some teams in this final week of the regular season, as a handful of clubs kick and scratch for the final three playoff seeds still available to the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But for two high-profile organizations that began the year with big aspirations, the soul-searching is already well underway.
The New York Rangers lost 7-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Saturday to officially end any hope of a post-season appearance. The loss marked the second time in three outings that New York allowed seven or more goals to an opponent.
Meanwhile, the Vancouver Canucks’ playoff fate was already sealed heading into the weekend. Still, a 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild — a team Vancouver had previously been chasing for a wild-card spot — put a fine point on the Canucks’ galling season. Ultimately, everything that happened in the game was overshadowed by concern for the wellbeing of Derek Forbort after the Canucks defenceman took a late punch from Minnesota’s Yakor Trenin that, we later learned, broke Forbort’s orbital bone.
Still, the game itself did not flatter the Canucks, who blew a 2-0 third-period lead and managed just 14 shots on goal during another subpar domestic performance. Vancouver has a .513 points percentage on home ice this year, worse than all but three outfits in the NHL.
Of the 16 teams that will eventually miss the big dance this year, no two clubs were coming off better showings last season than the Blueshirts and Canucks. New York was a Presidents’ Trophy-winning squad that advanced to the final four, while Vancouver took top spot in the Pacific Division and came within a single victory of making the Western Conference final.
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Now, both organizations are set to tackle huge questions in coming days. The Rangers situation is so rotten that a hockey operations house cleaning can’t be ruled out. In Vancouver, it’s a question of whether the club can retain Rick Tocchet — the coach of the year 12 months ago — now that his contract is about to expire.
Of course, roster change is coming, too. New York is more locked into its core, with long-term deals containing trade protection all over the books. This team will have to look different next fall, but there’s a limit to what any GM — new or existing — can do to reshape it.
In Vancouver, the Canucks are already preparing to bid goal-scorer Brock Boeser good-bye as a UFA. Thatcher Demko — tormented by an inability to stay healthy — will have one year remaining on his deal when this season is up. At the middle of everything is Elias Pettersson, a supposed top-line centre who — when playing — has looked anything but in the 14 months since he inked a monster eight-year extension with the club. That contract has trade protection kick in on July 1, but how could the Canucks seriously contemplate dealing him before then with his value that of a 45-point player making $11.6 million annually through 2031-32?
Hard seasons rarely beget easy answers, and reclaiming turf with the top clubs in the league is going to be a monster challenge for these two prominent franchises.
Weekend Takeaways
• Despite beating Vancouver on Saturday, the Wild have yet to officially lock down a playoff spot. A single point at home against Anaheim on Tuesday will do the trick. Assuming it gets there, Minnesota has certainly become an interesting club at the bottom of the Western Conference playoff draw. Last week, we saw Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek — otherwise known as the team’s two most important forwards — return from extended injury-related absences. Now, the Wild are set to add Zeev Buium — who will likely debut versus the Ducks — to the blueline after his NCAA career came to an end at the Frozen Four semifinals. It’s easy to draw a line between Buium’s potential and what the Wild saw from Brock Faber in 2023, when he jumped straight into the NHL fray from the college ranks. Faber played two regular-season games, then all six playoff contests as the Wild fell to a superior Dallas Stars squad in the first round. Buium certainly has the ability to step in and immediately influence games for Minny, even if it’s on the third pair for now. This could be one interesting wild-card team when the dust settles.
• A few teams entered the weekend with their playoff hopes hanging in the balance and none of them responded the way the Columbus Blue Jackets did, with two resounding victories over a top-flight opponent. Granted, the Washington Capitals had some key bodies out of the lineup, but the Jackets went ahead and downed them by an aggregate score of 11-1 during a home-and-home set that played out in Ohio on Saturday afternoon and D.C. Sunday night. Adam Fantilli led the way with four goals for Columbus and the sophomore centre now sits one away from the 30-goal barrier, as the Jackets take this thing right down to the wire. At the other end of the ice, Jet Greaves stopped 51 of 52 shots by Washington in the two games. Columbus — which has won four straight — will need victories in Philly on Tuesday and at home versus the Islanders on Thursday to have any shot of overtaking a Montreal Canadiens team that holds a three-point advantage on it for the final wild card in the East.
The Week Ahead
• With Nathan MacKinnon keeping it in park for the Colorado Avalanche’s final two games, Nikita Kucherov will nail down his second consecutive and third career Art Ross Trophy this week. Kucherov leads the league with 119 points after bagging a pair of goals and a helper versus Buffalo on Sunday.
• The St. Louis Blues can secure a playoff spot with a 60-minute win when Utah Hockey Club comes to visit on Tuesday. After a dozen consecutive W’s, the Blues have dropped three straight, including a shootout loss in Seattle on Saturday. Anything other than a regulation victory in Game 82 for the Blues opens the door to being caught by Calgary, which hosts Vegas Tuesday and visits L.A. on Thursday.
• Will we get the NHL’s first-ever 900-goal guy this week? After scoring No. 896 on Sunday, Alex Ovechkin needs four goals to get there. The Caps are on Long Island — where Ovie just broke the all-time goals record — on Tuesday and close the year out with a visit to Pittsburgh. Can you imagine Ovechkin notching No. 900 in a game versus Sidney Crosby on the final day of the regular season?
• The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin on Saturday. See you in the second season.
Red and White Power Rankings
1. Winnipeg Jets (55-22-4) Winnipeg won the Presidents’ Trophy, capping a two-year run of remarkable regular season success. Since the start of 2023-24, the Jets’ 107 wins is five more than anybody else in the league has posted.
2. Toronto Maple Leafs (50-25-4) Two more weekend wins have basically locked down the Atlantic Division for the Leafs, who are 7-0-1 in their past eight. Toronto is playing tight hockey these days, having surrendered two or fewer goals in six of those eight games.
3. Edmonton Oilers (47-28-5) The Oilers can overcome a lot with their high-end skill, but the news shutdown defenceman Mattias Ekholm might be done for the year is a lot to digest.
4. Ottawa Senators (44-30-6) Shane Pinto hit paydirt twice in Friday’s 5-2 win over Montreal to give him 20 goals on the campaign, the same amount he scored as a rookie two years ago. With Pinto playing strong, deadline acquisition Dylan Cozens blending well and Tim Stutzle at the top of the lineup, the Sens suddenly look strong down the middle heading into the post-season.
5. Calgary Flames (39-27-14) Though they don’t control their own destiny, this Flames crew has taken the playoff chase down to the wire with two home-ice wins on Friday and Sunday. However this plays out for Calgary, full marks to the Flames for the fight they’ve shown all season.
6. Montreal Canadiens (39-31-10) All the out-of-town scoreboard watching can end Monday night if Montreal — in what’s expected to be the debut of super-prospect Ivan Demidov — can collect two points against the Chicago Blackhawks.
7. Vancouver Canucks (37-29-14) The Canucks close out the season at home on Wednesday and let’s just say there should be no shortage of things to talk about when they clean out their lockers on Thursday or Friday.
