NHL power rankings before Play-offs: Eastern Conference
The Eastern Conference might have been slow during the regulation season, but they have had a major shift in positioning during the final days before the highly anticipated playoffs.
Some teams have showed a major change in their game strategy which has led them to become the best. The East has only seen the Stanley Cup once since 2006 and that was when Pittsburgh brought it home in 2009.
If you want to see what team you should place your bets on throughout the playoffs then this could be your guide.
According to analysis, we will try to put our objective into detail through rankings, teams which have the highest chance of reaching and eventually winning the finals.
Ranks are numbered from best (1) and downwards (2,3,4). Teams that are not mentioned are basically teams which are not considered capable of reaching the finals.
Washington Capitals
Rank: 1
It is not a matter of ranking according to the conference when you look at the team standings currently. It matters how the team performs in certain situations that enables a person to determine whether they have what it takes to execute.
Washington is a perfect example of that. Capitals might not have remained in a good position since the start, but they definitely have silenced their critics, big time.
Alex Ovechkin has led his team to what nobody could have every dreamed of Capitals to achieve. It is second in the conference right now and there is a high possibility Capitals will take over Philadelphia for the first spot before the season ends.
Despite a recent loss to Carolina in a tough shootout, Washington has won 11 of its past 14 games this month. It has some easy prey to target in the upcoming matches which looks to ensure Capitals’ overtaking as conference leaders coming very soon.
Philadelphia Flyers
Rank: 2
Philadelphia is ranked second on this list due to a very specific reason, purely due to respect. After all, it is the conference leader at the moment and has been so for a long time now, almost since the season started.
It would be a shame to consider Capitals out of the race, but the reason it is rated second in these National Hockey Leagues power rankings is because of it recent inconsistent performances.
Flyers has not been able to play like it was, pre All-Star Game break, and because of that, it shows hesitation in its finals’ reaching abilities.
Flyers has been up and down throughout this month, not having a consecutive winning streak of more than two since March 10th. It won a big game against Pittsburgh on Tuesday, but it also lost to them in the previous week.
Teams that look as if they are really signalling a finals stretch do not follow this type of patter that Flyers currently is.
Buffalo Sabres
Rank: 3
There is always a surprise team that at any time comes out to become the surprise finalist, and if there was one to select, it would definitely be Buffalo Sabres.
After the change of ownership to the Pennsylvanian billionaire, Terry Pegula, Sabres has been energised in a way that has never been seen before.
It might be that he has taken over the team with true intentions and as he said, he truly is willing to do anything it takes to bring the cup home to Buffalo.
Remaining ousted throughout the season from the elite-eight in the East, it is hard to believe that Buffalo actually has secured the eighth spot in such a small time frame.
Buffalo has won major games this month, including matchups against Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. If they can keep this streak up, they will surely have an easy time reaching the finals.
It faces Washington Capitals on Saturday in its next game and Flyers in its second last.
Both games will be important in terms of what you can expect from them in the future play-off rounds.
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