As the NHL season reaches its final stretch the question come into play. Which so called “Bubble Teams” will make the playoffs? Today well look at three west coast teams on the bubble and determine their fate.
The Dallas stars are in an interesting place. 63 points with 63 games played sitting 3 places out of the playoffs. They do have Tyler Seguin however the superstar leading this team. And Kari Lhetonen standing on his head in net. The problem for the stars is depth after their first and second line there isn’t much in the way of goal scoring. The defense is less than solid with the highest plus minus of plus 4 for john Klinberg and Alex Gologoski. This is not a good thing because without goals and without a defense you don’t have much of a hockey team. That’s why the stars will not make the playoffs.
Calgary a once proud franchise has fallen out of the playoffs the last few years. They won’t make it this year either. Calgary with 70 points and 61 games played is one spot out of the playoffs but they will have to fend off massive NHL playoff super powers the last few years. Most namely San Jose, Minnesota, Dallas, and Colorado. Leading goal scorer Sean Monahan is accompanied by former Avalanche superstar Matt Stajan. Juri Hudler has 48 points (a team high) and there deep in goal scoring the problem is goalkeeping. Jonas Hiller looks like the clear starter but the tape shows Kari Ramos is on a hot streak. Historically Hiller chokes in the playoffs and down the stretch. How can you trust Ramo either though with only ten wins in 22 starts? Big questions that head Coach Bob Hartley must answer correctly if he wants a playoff spot.
Minnesota oh Minnesota want some good news you have Darcy kuemper and Niklas Backstrom in net. Why is this big deal? You had Ilya Bryzgolav last year. That really hurt them racing for the playoffs last year. But other than that the rosters the same this team is complete and they have experience that is so often under looked. If you have an experienced team then you’ll get to where you need to be in the case of the Wild the playoffs.