Now those four teams are competing for the two wild-card spots in the East, coming from very different directions.
It's a surprise the Blue Jackets are in the race at all, the Senators have showed they belong and the Rangers and Bruins have clawed back in it after underachieving for several months.
“Nobody’s giving up, that’s for sure,” Columbus general manager Don Waddell said. “It’s going to be a tight race the rest of the way. We’re just hoping that we can continue to win more games than we lose, and if we do that we’ll be in good shape.”
Ottawa Senators
The pesky Sens won five of their first six games in March to get in the driver's seat for the seventh seed behind likely playoff teams Washington, Florida, Carolina, Toronto, Tampa Bay and New Jersey. They have 73 standings points with 18 games remaining.
“It’s not about being in the playoff picture right now,” alternate captain Claude Giroux said. “It’s just how we’re playing. How we want to play, we have a belief that it’s going to make us be in the playoffs."
First-year coach Travis Green has set a competitive tone since training camp.
"He had us ready from the get-go," said veteran winger David Perron, who won the Cup with St. Louis in 2019. "There's going to be some stretches where you don't play as good, whatever it is, either individually or the team. I think he's done a good job to kind of reset us at the right times."
Captain Brady Tkachuk has a team-best 27 goals, center Tim Stützle has 21 points in his past 16 games to lead Ottawa with 66 and only reigning MVP Nathan MacKinnon has scored more than defenseman Jake Sanderson this month. Add some great goaltending from 2023 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark, and the fun times are rolling on the ice in Canada's capital.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Perron said. “You play those kind of meaningful games and those important games that we are right now and that we have been for a little bit, it’s the best feeling.”
Columbus Blue Jackets
The death in late August of top forward Johnny Gaudreau, who was killed along with his brother, Matthew, while riding their bicycles near their New Jersey hometown on the eve of their sister Katie's wedding was the latest shock to a tortured organization that was three years removed from goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks dying in a July Fourth fireworks accident.
With Waddell taking over and installing Dean Evason as coach, the expectations on the ice this season were very low — and that was before captain Boone Jenner had shoulder surgery before opening night. Columbus was a 15-1 long shot to even make the playoffs and as high as 25-1 in November on BetMGM Sportsbook.
Then point-a-game defenseman Zach Werenski led the way and he and his teammates hold the second and final wild-card spot with 70 points and 18 games left.
“We’re just leaving it all out there every night, and we’re giving ourselves a chance to win,” Werenski said. “It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been one of the more fun years I’ve had, and it’s been a battle. We’ve been battling every night and it’s not been smooth sailing all the time, but I’ve just really enjoyed battling with these guys.”
Waddell conceded he "kept waiting for the bubble to burst," but then the likes of tough guy Mathieu Olivier, young Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson and veteran Sean Monahan — a close friend of Gaudreau's — stepped up to keep things rolling against all odds.
“It feels like this year we were turning a corner,” Olivier said. “We’re making a really realistic push for playoffs here, which is our goal.”
New York Rangers
Bringing back elite center J.T. Miller has paid big dividends for the Rangers, who were in a funk until January. Miller has 16 points in 15 games since the trade from Vancouver, and it has also helped that top players such as Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck have raised their level.
They've lost four in a row, but the Rangers with 68 points and 17 games remaining are right in the mix, two points back of Columbus.
“We’re in a playoff fight right now,” defenseman Will Borgen told reporters in Winnipeg after losing 2-1 to the Jets on Tuesday night. “We’re battling for every point. ... We’ve got to string along some wins if we want to make the playoffs.”
Boston Bruins
A little like the Rangers, the Bruins bought and sold — but mostly sold — at the trade deadline, sending Brad Marchand to Florida, Brandon Carlo to Toronto, Justin Brazeau to Minnesota, Trent Frederic to Edmonton and Charlie Coyle to Colorado. It looked as if they were pulling the plug on a lost season, but beating the playoff-bound Lightning and Panthers back-to-back has Boston right in the thick of the hunt with 68 points and 16 games to play.
Coach Joe Sacco knows the spot his team is in and what just happened. Goaltender Jeremy Swayman, as a result, believes he and his teammates are “getting hungrier.”
“We're not giving up on this group,” Swayman said. “I just couldn’t be more proud of the guys, the way that their effort is and the way that we’re competing as a team and just being cohesive and we’re obviously getting results."
Also in it
The Montreal Canadiens pulled even with New York and Boston at 68 points by beating the Canucks on Tuesday night. Going into Wednesday's action, the Detroit Red Wings (66 points with 18 games left) are four points out.
While the Canadiens are ahead of schedule in their organizational retooling effort, the Red Wings came up just short a year ago and are in danger of extending the longest playoff drought in franchise history.
Five points back on the very fringe of contention are the New York Islanders (65 points with 18 games left), who have lost seven of 11 and traded pending free agent center Brock Nelson to Colorado on the eve of the trade deadline.
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AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed.
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