The regular season is over for the Nashville Predators after five more games and their first round opponent is being narrowed down. While it isn't a certainty that the Predators will face one of two division leaders in the first round this season, there is a 69% chance that they will.
While the Central Division seemed up for grabs a couple of weeks ago, the Dallas Stars have pulled ahead and gotten the clear advantage to win with 105 points in 77 games. The Colorado Avalanche are three points back with the same number of games remaining. Dallas is also three points ahead of the Pacific Division leader, the Vancouver Canucks, with the same number of games remaining this season, so it looks like the Stars will be facing whichever team ends up in the second wildcard spot.
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With the Los Angeles Kings winning yesterday and the Predators losing, the Kings jumped to third in their division while the Vegas Golden Knights have the same number of points as Nashville with one fewer game left to play. There is a 34% chance the Predators play the Stars in Round 1, not due to Colorado or Vancouver catching Dallas in points, but because of the likelihood the Predators finish in the second wildcard.
With the Predators competing with both the Kings and Golden Knights for a better wildcard seed, there is actually a 35% chance that the Predators will face off against the Canucks in the first round of the playoffs. The Canucks don't have their division locked up with the Edmonton Oilers breathing down their necks (three points back with a game in hand), but the Canucks have held onto the top spot for a long time.
The Predators are 2-2-0 against the Stars this season and 0-3-0 against the Canucks. While the Stars seem like the better matchup this season in terms of head-to-head records, the team looks like a juggernaut all the way through the lineup and have Matt Duchene on a mission.
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