End of the season rooting interests

 There is a wide Gulf between the best teams in the NHL and the next tier. There is a long standing observation over how difficult it is to sustain the success of a season in which you won the President's Trophy, and carrying that through to success n the Playoff. At this point, since the team with the most points doesn't ever win the Cup, I think we can be happy if a team from this upper echelon wins it. 

There are 11 teams with more than 88 points, and 0 teams with between 83 and 88 points. There is also a gap between 89 to 93 points, and there are 8 teams with 93 points or more. Let's hope, then, that one of these 8 teams can win the Cup, and render the entire, long winded regular season valid. If you are a fan of one of the other 24 franchises, this is probably going to be difficult. To help, I have come up with 1 reason to root for every one of the top 8 squads.

1: Bruins - Do you like consistency? Well, these Bruins, like Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak or Charlie McAvoy have all been a part of the Bruins organization since 1976

2: Panthers - Last year, I picked the Panthers to win the Stanley Cup, feeling their all in attitude was laudable. Now a year later, I would still feel pretty good about myself if they won it all, and don't you want me to feel good about myself?

3: Rangers - Henrik Lundqvist still has close ties with the Rangers. Maybe you could get his number if he knows you are cheering for them? Or maybe you are just a fan of bad nicknames, then you can cheer for the Breadman, Artemi Panarin.

4: Hurricanes - Brent Burns  is still around and generally kicking but. He's been growing a playoff beard since he was 19, and it would be great to see if he would shave upon winning it all.

5: Avalanche - This is purely an "I like Denver" play, because Denver is lovely. The Avs won it two seasons ago, and the town got a little high on themselves, but still, a lovely town.

6: Stars - This is a tough sell for a fan from Minnesota, given the history, and the fact that the Wild aren't going to be in the postseason either, but here goes. Jake Oettinger and I have some common acquaintances, so that's pretty neat. 

7: Jets - This is the team for nearly every Canadian outside of Vancouver.

8: Canucks - This is the team for fans inside of Vancouver, or people who remember their last trip to the Final and the chaos that ensued in the city. Be safe, Vancouver.

So there you go, maybe you can use that handy guide to find the right choice for you. Or you can be a traditional Flyers fan and root against everyone. 

I can tell you how it SHOULD go

 The beginning of trade season has seen one team in particular get very active very early. The Calgary Flames have taken advantage of talent on their roster, a somewhat underwhelming season and a market thirsting for talent infusions and executed a couple of big trades, sending Elias Lindholm to Vancouver and Chris Tanev to Dallas. Noah Hanifin is likely next, and who knows what else is to follow. 

Meanwhile, NHL.com states that the Minnesota Wild "might not [trade Marc-Andre Fleury] if the Wild believe they can make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They're in the hunt...". Whether or not the Wild trade Fleury likely has more to do with whether or not Fleury wants to be moved. He's had a Hall of Fame career, is on his 4th team and is approaching 40. I can't imagine he's all that willing to be traded again, even to a cup contender, and the Wild are likely willing to let him have his way. 

But calling the Wild "in the hunt" is the really strange part of all this. The Flames, the team that has been jettisoning, and will continue to offload, their top talent, are a point ahead of the Wild, with two games in hand. This is, of course, made worse by the Wild dropping their two most recent games against two teams immediately ahead of them in the standings - the Predators and Blues (who are also, it should be said, ahead of and tied with the Flames, respectively).

The Flames are on a 5 game winning streak right now, and if the Predators weren't in the midst of an 8 game run, they would be right up against the final wild card spot. The Wild have been an uneven mess for most of the season. They haven't had any streaks, except for a brief minute after the all star break, where you thought that they would be making a run towards the postseason.

I'm an advocate for teams always making every effort to reach the postseason. Anything can happen when you get there, especially in this era when the first couple of rounds may be against a rival to help you get your blood boiling, but I also understand the Flames desire to cash in where they are able. The players they are trading away aren't going to be on the roster next year, and they are only at the periphery of the postseason conversation. Surely, they could make it, but also if they don't they would have lost Tanev and Lindholm for nothing.

A bigger gulf between the Flames and Wild isn't the attitude for the postseason. Minnesota just doesn't have the high end tradeable assets that Calgary does. Outside of Fleury, the Wild's other players on expiring deals are names like Connor Dewar and Brandon Duhaime, which will not attract the same kind of attention. 

From a strict performance standpoint, it should be the Wild and not the Flames selling off pieces already. In the end, we might not see the Wild do much of anything while Calgary remains active, because things aren't solely determined by performance. 

Nobody is ready for the trade deadline

The trade deadline is coming up six long days from now. It seems like The Athletic has been sending me updates on potential deadline targets for the last two months, and we still have an arduous week to wait for the deals to start flying.

Of course, some deals, like Chris Tanev's, Sean Monahan's and Elias Lindholm's have already been executed, but the real party will come on Friday. And not Friday morning, everything will start around lunch time and conclude with a mad dash for the closing bell.

This is just how hockey is as an organization. All of the big pivotal moments are frantic and over before you realize they have started. The offseason has nothing until the beginning of July and then FREE AGENCY and then we wait until the season starts. There are some meandering transaction stories and then for three brilliant hours, we have 25 trades involving every team in the league. Once in a while, a team will sit out completely, but that's typically because they overslept.

The Flames are very clearly tearing things down. There are other teams out of contention that won't have the right pieces to have a fire sale, but I would watch the Minnesota Wild as a payroll pressed team rapidly falling out of contention as an active player on Friday. The Islanders also rank high on my list of teams to watch for wrong reasons this week.

On a more positive front, I think teams that are in position thanks to a very hot stretch may want to reinforce their roster before they slip back to mediocrity. That would point me to look at more things to come from Winnipeg, but also the Nashville Predators. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Rangers take a swing as well. In either direction, many teams will have to determine their course of action based on how just these next couple of days go. 

But then again, everyone is going to be making a move. There is a chance with any roster shuffle that it might end up being the type of move that brings in a beloved third liner for many years to come, or a player that develops into a better skater than the one given up in trade. It's a wild ride, and none of it will be predictable.