NHL scoring title, final playoff berths up for grabs with week left in regular season
The NHL regular season ends in one week on April 18 and plenty remains undecided.
The scoring race is close, unlike like last season when Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid ran away with the Art Ross Trophy. The Hart Trophy race for MVP to his team is equally tight.
Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews can hit a goal-scoring milestone not seen since the 1990s. McDavid and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov can become just the fourth and fifth players in NHL history to record 100 assists in a season.
The races for the division titles are pretty much decided, but it's tight at the bottom of the Eastern Conference and not over in the Western Conference.
Here's where things stand with a week left in the NHL regular season:
Will Toronto's Auston Matthews reach 70 goals?
It's possible. He enters Thursday's action with 66 goals, the most in the salary cap era. He needs four goals in his final four games and has seven goals during a six-game goal streak. He has averaged less than a goal a game against the final four opponents.
The question is, will the Maple Leafs rest him for the playoffs? No NHL player has had a 70-goal season since Teemu Selanne and Alex Mogilny scored 76 in 1992-93.
Who will win the scoring race?
Likely Kucherov. He's tallied 139 points and has a two-point lead on the Colorado Avalanche's Nathan MacKinnon (137 points) with a game in hand. Kucherov has 13 points in his last five games, compared to 10 for MacKinnon.
Who will win the Hart Trophy?
There's no clear-cut player like last year, when McDavid won. Kucherov, MacKinnon, McDavid (currently day-to-day with a lower-body injury) and Matthews are having big seasons that have lifted their teams into the playoffs. New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin will get on writers' ballots, too. MacKinnon seems to have the inside edge.
Who will win the division titles?
The Dallas Stars can clinch the Central Division Thursday night. The Rangers (Metropolitan) and Boston Bruins (Atlantic) have three-point leads with three games left. The Vancouver Canucks lead the Pacific Division by four points, but the Oilers have two games in hand. Vancouver has the edge in the first tiebreakers, but the teams will play Saturday in Edmonton.
Who will get the final two playoff berths in the Western Conference?
The Los Angeles Kings just need another win and they're in. That could happen on Thursday. The defending champion Vegas Golden Knights will clinch Friday if they win and the St. Louis Blues lose their game. That was the same scenario on Wednesday, but banged-up Vegas lost and St. Louis won.
Who will get the final two playoff berths in the Eastern Conference?
Five teams are still alive and four points separate them. The New York Islanders (87) hold the third seed in the Metropolitan Division and have won five in a row. The Washington Capitals (85) sit in the second wild-card spot but have tough games against the Bruins and Lightning among their final four. The Pittsburgh Penguins (84) and Detroit Red Wings (84) face each other Thursday. If the Philadelphia Flyers (83) can turn around their 1-6-3 slide, they face the Capitals in the regular season finale.
