Oneu200b week to go,u200b andu200b theu200b pictureu200b isu200b startingu200b to comeu200b into focus.
Let’s startu200b with what weu200b know.u200b Ten teams haveu200bu200b already clinched playoff spots and Dallas, Pittsburgh and Toronto are all close enough that it would take an epic collapse for any of them to miss. We also know that the Lightning have won the Presidents’ Trophy and will have home ice throughout the playoffs, that the Flames will be the top seed in the West and that the Sharks will host the Golden Knights in the other Pacific matchup. Toronto and Boston are close enough to a sure thing in the Atlantic, almost certainly with Boston having home ice, that we can go ahead and call it a done deal.