Weekend Takeaways: A breakdown of the wacky Western Conference

A quick glance at the standings and it’s easy to ask yourself the following question: Just how wild can things get in the West?

Here are a few things that are true right now of the conference that operates on the continent’s left side: Two of the top three teams by points missed the playoffs last year, while the third was a wild-card squad in 2021-22. Four teams are within three points of the West’s No. 1 seed; one of them is a second-year franchise and none of them is the loaded club that won the Stanley Cup last year because that outfit — games in hand or not — is still six points out of a playoff spot.

Go west, young man, and when you get back please explain to the rest of us what the heck is going on out there.

With their 2-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday night, the Winnipeg Jets are now in the catbird seat of the conference. Winnipeg wasn’t even close to making the post-season last year and after a summer where you’d be hard-pressed to find a positive storyline in Manitoba, new coach Rick Bowness has this team back to looking like one of the league’s best.

The Vegas Golden Knights were one of the NHL’s best storylines early on, coming out of the gate at 13-2-0 after missing the big dance themselves last year. After Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, though, the Knights are a pretty pedestrian 15-12-2 since mid-November.

The white-hot Seattle Kraken, the Jake Oettinger-backed Dallas Stars and a Los Angeles Kings squad that is 12-5-2 since Pheonix Copley first took the crease in early December are all within spitting distance of the Jets.

Then there’s the two Alberta clubs occupying wild card spots. The Oilers have been strong finishers the past few seasons, racking up a lot more wins in the second half of the year compared to the first. Edmonton’s current three-game winning streak — during which they’ve put 53, 41 and 37 shots on goal — could be evidence Connor and the boys are getting it cranked up and at some point down the road Evander Kane will re-join the mix.

The Calgary Flames hung on for dear life to get a 6-5 win over the Stars on Saturday and it’s easy to make a case, given the major off-season change there and Jacob Markstrom just being off through half the year, the Flames still have another gear.

That means, even with games in hand on everyone and healthy bodies making their way back to the lineup, it won’t be easy for the Avs to usurp any one of the eight teams already holding playoff spots. Colorado pasted the Ottawa Senators 7-0 on Saturday, but that was the club’s first 60-minute win since two days before Christmas.

The rub, of course, is should Colorado bump one of those teams, some poor squad that spent all year busting its butt for home-ice advantage will open the playoffs by welcoming a mountain lion into its arena. Can’t you just hear it now: “Good evening fans and welcome to Climate Pledge Arena for the first playoff game in team history between the now-healthy, currently peaking Colorado Avalanche and yooooouuuuuuurrrr Seattle Kraken!”

West may not be best this season, but it’s definitely interesting.

Other Takeaways

• At the other end of the Western Conference spectrum, the Coyotes have dropped nine straight after the setback against the Jets and are settling into that league basement where they not only expected, but more or less planned to be in a loaded 2023 draft year. During this current skid, Arizona hasn’t scored more than three goals in any single game and has netted two or fewer six times.

Tough as things are right now, the Coyotes could well bank more points than other bottom-feeders during the final three-plus months of the season because, after being road warriors to start the year while their temporary rink was being prepped, the Desert Dogs will play 25 of their final 39 games in Arizona’s Mullet Arena beginning Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings.

• You had the Kraken — who swept a seven-game road trip by pumping the Chicago Blackhawks 8-5 on Saturday — being one of the best offensive teams in the league this year, right? Seattle’s 3.76 goals-per-game trails only another one we all predicted, the Buffalo Sabres, at 3.85. The Sabres’ leading scorer is Tage Thompson, whose final stat line could look something like 55-50-105.

Matty Beniers and Andre Burakovsky co-lead the Kraken with 36 points, the lowest total to pace a club other than in Chicago and Anaheim. Seattle, though, gets it done by committee, with seven players posting at least 27 points so far. The only other squads that can say that are the Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings, Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning.

• R.I.P. to one of the good ones.

Weekend Warrior

Canada may have won the U18 Women’s World Championship on Sunday, but is there any doubt that the story of the tournament is Slovakian Nela Lopusanova?

First, the 14-year-old executed a Michigan goal earlier in the tournament against Sweden, then, on Saturday, she scored this tribute to hand-eye-coordination versus Czechia. Nela, we can’t wait to watch you do this from now until about, oh, 2045.

Red and White Rankings

1. Winnipeg Jets (29-14-1) Here comes Cole Perfetti. The rookie had three assists in a win over Pittsburgh Friday and another helper on the game-winner against Arizona. That’s six points in his past four games now for the guy who turned 21 earlier this month.

2. Toronto Maple Leafs (26-11-7) We know the Leafs are destined to play Tampa in Round 1. After Saturday’s tough late-goal loss to the Bruins, Toronto is only four points up on the Bolts in the battle for home-ice advantage — and Tampa holds three games in hand.

3. Edmonton Oilers (24-18-3) Four of Klim Kostin’s nine goals this year have come in the past three games, including the game-winner on Saturday in Vegas.

4. Calgary Flames (21-14-9) Chris Tanev got his first of the year in Dallas on Saturday. It looked like a pile-on goal when it was scored to make it 6-1 Flames in the middle period. Four unanswered Stars goals later, it turned out to be the game-winner.

5. Vancouver Canucks (18-22-3) We can’t say it any better than our own Iain MacIntyre; it was just too fitting that Ethan Bear, a member of the Ochapowace Nation, scored the goal that got Vancouver going in an eventual 4-3 shootout win on the day we said good-bye to Gino Odjick, who was a trailblazer for Indigenous athletes.

6. Montreal Canadiens (18-23-3) Sam Montembault has established himself as an NHL stopper this year. The 26-year-old made 36 saves in a 2-1 loss to the Islanders Saturday, then turned around and made 38 more the next night as the Canadiens escaped MSG with a 2-1 victory of their own.

7. Ottawa Senators (19-20-3) So the Sens get thrashed by the Avalanche two nights ago, meaning they’ve been outscored 15-4 in their past two Saturday night games after Seattle cracked them the weekend prior. The Senators have also now been blanked in two of their past three outings.

The Week Ahead

• David Krejci has basically looked as good as ever this season after his one-year NHL hiatus back home in Czechia last season. The 36-year-old will play his 1,000th big-league game on Monday, all of them in Boston black and gold, of course. It’s a 1 p.m. start in Boston with the Flyers visiting, as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in America means a busy slate of afternoon action in the league.

• Steven Stamkos needs one more for 500 goals. His next chance comes Monday afternoon in Seattle, where the Kraken and gunning for their ninth straight victory.

• Calgary hosts Colorado on Wednesday and it’s safe to say this is already a huge tilt for both teams.

• The best Canadian teams in the league this year will clash Thursday in Toronto when the Jets come to town for a visit. That same night, the Sabres will host the Islanders in a game with Eastern Conference wild card ramifications.