The Red Wings are charging hard and Gustav Nyquist is leading that charge. For the week Nyquist has continued his tear with 3 goals, 1 assist, 1 PPP, and 12 SOG; he scored a high leverage third period goal to help defeat the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night. He also led the Red Wings past the flagging Maple Leafs earlier in the week, and now has 21 goals and 38 points in 45 games this season. Think he starts next year in Grand Rapids against (Nope).

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I was really impressed by the way the Dallas Stars rallied back to throttle the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Ottawa went up early thanks to an Erik Karlsson goal, but the Stars just kept generating looks by the bucketfull and ultimately overwhelmed Robin Lehner (who was excellent) and the hapless Sens defense. 

Then once they built a third period lead, the Stars looked solid without the puck as they went out and held it. Ottawa has a lot of talent, but Lehtonen wasn’t seriously tested late. If one question about the Stars lingered, it was their play without the puck. They’re beginning to put those concerns to bed.

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I’d bet lots and lots on the Stars outlasting the Coyotes to secure that eighth seed – they’re very much legitimately good, and will only get better going forward. Wouldn’t surprise me if they were able to cause a top-seeded team some headaches in round one.

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The Rangers shutout the Devils 2-0 on Saturday, and I think are right up there with St. Louis and Pittsburgh in the “serious pretender” tier of teams. Actually I might argue that they’re the best of those three teams.

Ryan McDonagh is having a whale of a season, and has really stepped up his game offensively under Alain Vigneault. I knew McDonagh was skilled – he’s got a quality shot, and moves the puck calmly in the offensive end – but he’s looked legitimately dangerous in transition of late, which I’d never really seen from him previously.

Moreover the Rangers can come at you with three dangerous lines, and I think that makes them a brutal matchup for teams like the Bruins and the Lightning who rely on a dominant top pair. I don’t think they should be favoured or anything, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Rangers could come out of the East…

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Jonathan Quick shutout the Panthers during L.A.’s 4-0 win over Florida on Saturday, and in doing so Quick singlehandedly ended my fantasy season (very probably). 

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Alright so the biggest story in hockey for the rest of the regular season is obviously going to be the Toronto Maple Leafs and whether or not they can make the postseason (they’re down below 50% according to sportsclubstats.com).

I tend to think that this Toronto team is pretty talented, more talented than their underlying numbers would suggest. But they’re just too permissive defensively under Carlyle, and boy do they look it. You really just shouldn’t need to rely on the numbers or a basic understanding of how ratios in hockey work to know that, at this point.

At least Dave Bolland is back and looked pretty good on Saturday. He’ll help. But it doesn’t look to me like Dion Phaneuf – who has clearly been battling through something that can’t get worse, but is causing him a lot of pain – can move particularly well. That hurts this team, and it hurts them a lot. 

With Detroit streaking and Columbus being legitimately a better team, the Leafs are in trouble. Their entire season has been fascinating to watch, so why should their final ten games be any different?