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Good morning, hockey folks. This section is where Sean would say something funnier than I’ll ever come up with. So, picture that and read on.
Parity’s effect on the playoffs
Speaking of DGB, he’s been doing a great job tracking the chaos of the results around the league each week, and last night’s games offered more of the same.
The Winnipeg Jets — sitting in last place as of a week ago — pounded one of the top teams in the league, the Minnesota Wild, 6-2 for their fourth W in a row, ending an 11-game losing skid that appeared to crush their season. (Loseipeg no more?)
The Bruins (on a 7-1-0 streak), Sabres (15-2-0), Penguins (7-2-1) and Sharks (7-2-0) also all won, and those four have been among the NHL’s hottest seven teams since the Christmas break. (Despite basically no one picking them to make the postseason back in the fall.)
And Columbus got in the win column again in game No. 2 for the recently unretired Rick Bowness, the septuagenarian coach who will add to the Blue Jackets’ feel-good story if they can turn their season around.
So, where does the NHL’s jumbled mess now sit, 748 games (57 percent) into 2025-26?
If the playoffs started today…
Based on points percentage (league rank in parentheses)
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
- Tampa Bay (2nd) vs. Boston (12th)
- Detroit (7th) vs. Montreal (8th)
Metropolitan Division
- Carolina (4th) vs. Buffalo (9th)
- Islanders (10th) vs. Pittsburgh (11th)
Western Conference
Central Division
- Colorado (1st) vs. Utah (20th)
- Dallas (3rd) vs. Minnesota (5th)
Pacific Division
- Vegas (6th) vs. San Jose (19th)
- Edmonton (17th) vs. Seattle (18th)
Out of playoffs: Toronto (13th), Florida (14th), Philadelphia (15th), Washington (16th)
I know everyone’s pretty jammed together, but if this is where we’re headed, it’s not great.
You have three of the league’s top five teams all facing each other in the first two rounds in the Central Division. Carolina somehow gets a tougher opponent, Buffalo, than in the other Metro Division matchup. And with the Atlantic Division on fire of late, four Eastern Conference teams with records in the NHL’s top 16 are missing the playoffs to allow the craptastic Pacific Division to send weaker clubs in for a soft road to the conference finals.
We’ve long known the NHL’s division-heavy playoff format needs tweaking — ideally going back to at least a 1-vs.-8 setup to better reward teams that have good regular seasons — but this year might just hammer home its issues more than ever before.
Don’t say we didn’t see it coming after so many years where the first two rounds have had better series (and teams) than Round 3.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
Marner gets revenge win
Vegas’ Mitch Marner heard from some boobirds in his first game against his former club — and surprisingly, they were in his home rink.
While the Maple Leafs pushed out to a 5-3 lead late, they couldn’t hold on, eventually conceding a 6-5 overtime loss to the Golden Knights in a highly entertaining game that extended Vegas’ win streak to six.
Marner was a little quiet in this one but did have a couple of power-play assists as part of the comeback, playing as Vegas’ second-line center and PP QB.
You know what won’t be quiet? The rematch between these two teams next week in Toronto. The vitriol will be quite evident, given how many Leafs fans feel spurned by Marner leaving as a pending unrestricted free agent back in June.
MirTrivia Question
We’ll stick with the theme here.
Since he entered the league in 2016-17, Marner has an incredible 558 assists in 703 games, an average of 65 every 82 games.
Can you name the only four players who have more?
Coast to Coast
7️⃣ These seven teams have big decisions to make at the trade deadline. Buffalo as buyers?
♨️ NHL commish Gary Bettman has a new favorite show, and it’s probably not what you’d expect. (Binged it in one night? That’s a lot of heat.)
📣 There’s no NHL All-Star Game this year due to the Olympics, but that isn’t stopping the Power Rankings guys from naming fake rosters for a nonexistent game.
📊 Dom Luszczyszyn gets charty with it in his latest edition of 16 Stats, which looks at Connor McDavid’s hot streak, the Atlantic Division’s strength, the Devils’ struggles and much more.
🤔 Will the Rangers rebuild or retool in the aftermath of what looks to be a disastrous season? We’re certainly seeing how vital Igor Shesterkin is since his injury.
🏒 We need your help: We’re working on a story that looks at all 32 arenas around the NHL and we’re asking you to rate your local rink here. (There’s even space to vent about how much those beers cost.)
🎤 On the latest episode of “The Athletic Hockey Show”: Who will replace Brayden Point on Team Canada if his injury forces him out of the Olympics?
⛸️ Picture a 7-foot-1 NBA champion in custom size 18 ice skates playing in a celebrity hockey game. It could happen, thanks to Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.
(Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
The next big name on the move?
A $9 million defenseman sitting as a healthy scratch has a way of driving some headlines.
After Dougie Hamilton sat out in the Devils’ loss in Winnipeg last Sunday, he has three points in two games — both wins — as New Jersey attempts to right its disappointing season. Next up, the Devils have a tough test against the Hurricanes, who, in my opinion, just might be the frontrunners to acquire the big defenseman.
Hamilton is an interesting case. He’s 32 years old and has had a lot of recent injuries, but some top teams are still very intrigued by the minute-eating right-shot blueliner. Offense has been hard to come by for Hamilton this season, but over the previous three years, he’s 12th in the league in points per game among defensemen. And his defensive results remain high-end.
The big question is whether the Devils are willing to retain any salary on his deal, and if so, how that impacts their return.
Given the terse statement from Hamilton’s agent the other day, this certainly doesn’t feel like a marriage that’s going to last much longer.
- Weekly reminder: The NHL has a roster freeze for the Olympics that begins the afternoon of Feb. 4, so that may act as a second trade deadline and encourage some movement in the next 18 days. And the real trade deadline is March 6, only 10 days after players return from the Games.
(Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)
MirTrivia Answer
The four players who have more assists than Marner’s 558 over the past 10 years in the NHL are:
- Connor McDavid (741)
- Nikita Kucherov (600)
- Nathan MacKinnon (599)
- Leon Draisaitl (560)
Marner is only two helpers back of Draisaitl, despite playing 26 fewer games.
(Yes, we know, Leafs fans — we’ll see what happens in the playoffs. Potentially even a rematch between the Golden Knights and Oilers to see who wins the Pacific.)
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