NHL Standings: What’s the Latest?

Keep up with the NHL standings with our latest blog post. We’ll break down who’s leading the pack and who’s falling behind.

NHL Basics

As the NHL Season comes to a close, the race for the Stanley Cup is getting tighter. In the Eastern conference, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins, and Washington Capitals are all within 2 points of each other. In the Western Conference, the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets, and Calgary Flames are all within 3 points of each other. With the end of the season approaching, every game counts.

How the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Work

For non-hockey fans, the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup Playoffs can be a confusing event. In order to help clear up some of the confusion, we’ve put together a quick guide explaining how the playoffs work.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the NHL’s regular season. The playoffs are contested by 16 teams – eight from the NHL’s Eastern Conference and eight from the Western Conference.

The playoff field is seeded based on each team’s regular season record. The conference with the best record is given the top seed, and so on down the line. In each conference, the team with the best record is matched up against the team with the worst record, and so on.

Each playoff series is a best-of-seven affair, meaning that the first team to win four games moves on to the next round. If both teams have won three games each after six games are played, then a seventh and final game is played to determine which team moves on.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs typically begin in mid-April and can last until early June. The NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals are generally considered to be one of North America’s four major professional sports championship series, along with those of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and Major League Soccer.

What is the NHL Stanley Cup?

The Stanley Cup is the oldest professional sports trophy in North America.

The Stanley Cup is a trophy that is awarded to the playoff champion of the National Hockey League (NHL). The trophy was donated by Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston, who was the Governor General of Canada. It was first awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, who won it by defeating the Ottawa Generals in a two-game series.

The Stanley Cup has been won by teams from all over North America, including the United States, Canada, and even once by a team from Newfoundland. The Montreal Canadiens are the most successful team in Stanley Cup history, having won it 24 times.

NHL Standings

The NHL regular season is nearing its end, and the standings are starting to take shape. The Tampa Bay Lightning are still in first place, but the Boston Bruins are starting to close the gap. The Lightning have been the best team in the league all season, but the Bruins have been hot lately. Who will win the Stanley Cup?

Eastern Conference

The NHL Stanley Cup playoffs are 4 weeks away and the race is still on for many teams in the hunt. The Tampa Bay Lightning have clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for having the best record in the regular season, but there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding who will take home the other top prizes.

In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers are currently tied for first place with 95 points each. The Bruins have played one fewer game than the Panthers, so they technically have a better chance of winning the conference title. However, both teams have been playing well lately and it’s anybody’s guess who will come out on top.

The other team to watch in the East is the Washington Capitals, who occupy the first wild card spot with 92 points. The Capitals have been streaky this season but are always a dangerous team in the playoffs. They could easily make a run at first place if either the Bruins or Panthers stumble down the stretch.

Western Conference

Anaheim Ducks
Arizona Coyotes
Calgary Flames
Chicago Blackhawks
Colorado Avalanche
Dallas Stars
Edmonton Oilers
Los Angeles Kings
Minnesota Wild
Nashville Predators
San Jose Sharks
St. Louis Blues
Vancouver Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights

NHL Teams

The NHL is split into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. There are three divisions in each conference. The NHL standings are determined by the number of points each team has. The team with the most points in each division is the division winner. The conference winners are the teams with the most points in their respective conferences.

Anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks are a professional ice hockey team based in Anaheim, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The club was founded in 1993 by The Walt Disney Company as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a name based on the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks. Disney sold the franchise in 2005 to Henry and Susan Samueli, who changed the name of the team to the Anaheim Ducks before the 2006–07 season.

Anaheim has played its home games at Honda Center since its opening in 1993. The arena is located approximately 35 miles (56 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

As of 2018, the Ducks have made five appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals (2003, 2007, 2015, 2017, and 2018), winning in 2007 and becoming only the second team from California to do so (after their longtime rivals, the Los Angeles Kings).

Arizona Coyotes

The Arizona Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in Glendale, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Coyotes first played at America West Arena in downtown Phoenix, before moving to Glendale’s Gila River Arena in 2003.

The Coyotes have won one playoff series, defeating the Nashville Predators in the 2012 Western Conference Quarterfinals. They lost in the first round of the playoffs in each of their next four appearances: 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team has been in existence since 1924, making them the oldest active NHL team. They are also one of the Original Six teams, along with the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Bruins have won six Stanley Cup championships, tied for fourth most of any team in the NHL. They are one of eleven NHL teams to win more than one Stanley Cup championship. The Bruins have also won two conference championships and four division championships.

NHL Players

The NHL standings are updated every day to show who’s in the lead and who’s trailing behind. But what do the standings mean for the players? Let’s take a look at how the standings can affect the players.

Sidney Crosby

Sidney Crosby, born August 7, 1987, is a Canadian professional ice hockey player and captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has played his entire professional career with the Penguins, winning three Stanley Cups (2009, 2016, and 2017). A native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, Crosby was drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. He is nicknamed “Sid the Kid” and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.

Connor McDavid

Connor McDavid is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is considered one of the best players in the world by many peers and analysts. Since being drafted first overall in 2015, McDavid has led the NHL in scoring twice and has won three Hart Trophies as league MVP, becoming the youngest player to do so each time. He has also been named to four straight all-star teams.

McDavid was born in Richmond Hill, Ontario, grew up in nearby Newmarket, and began playing organised hockey at age seven. He played minor hockey for the York–Simcoe Express of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA). Mcavid continued his career with the Don Mills Flyers of the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), before he was selected first overall by Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) in 2012. In his second season with Erie in 2014–15, he was named both OHL Player of the Year and CHL Player of the Year.

In his final season with Erie, McDavid produced 44 goals and 120 points over 47 games, becoming only the fourth player to record back-to-back seasons with 110 or more points in his draft year and post-draft year CHL career. When Erie won their second consecutive playoff championship that year, he became only one of 11 players to have won consecutive CHL championships as well as CHL Player of the Year honours. The following season, McDavid was selected first overall by Edmonton Oilers at 2015 NHL Entry Draft.

Alex Ovechkin

Alexander Mikhailovich “Alex” Ovechkin is a Russian professional ice hockey winger. He serves as the captain of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ovechkin was selected first overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Capitals. With 1,180 points, he is the eighth-highest scoring Russian-born player in NHL history.

Ovechkin started out his international career representing Russia at various junior tournaments. He made his debut with Russia’s senior team during the 2006 IIHF World Championship and scored a goal en route to Russia’s silver medal finish. Ovechkin has since represented Russia at four more IIHF World Championships (2008, 2009, 2012, 2013) and three Olympic Games (2006, 2010, 2014). He is one of only two players to score four goals in a single game at the World Championship (the other being Canada’s Wayne Gretzky).

He is also considered one of the best players of his generation and has been compared to Wayne Gretzky.