These predictions were made to predict the final standings of the Western Conference. If you would like to see my first round playoff predictions, check out my other article. See first round playoff predictions here. If you enjoy my articles, consider subscribing to my newsletter in the right hand corner for future updates.

Before I do anything else, I would like to apologize for having to rewrite this post. My last predictions were absolutely terrible. I was completely wrong about everything I said. In fact, I really don’t want to go into more detail than that, it’s pretty embarrassing.

Over 500 people viewed my previous Western Conference predictions and I’m sure that every single one of them left this website wondering just how much I knew about hockey. Personally, I can’t blame them. I still get about 30 people every day from Google and other websites reading this article. You deserve better predictions with more accurate facts.

Because of that (and partially because I wanted to redeem myself) I decided to rewrite this post and make better predictions based on what’s going on now. And, with that said, here they are.

1. San Jose Sharks
2. Chicago Blackhawks
3. Vancouver Canucks
4. Phoenix Coyotes
5. Detroit Red Wings
6. Nashville Predators
7. Colorado Avalanche
8. LA Kings

#1: San Jose Sharks

After last year’s embarrassing loss to the Anaheim Ducks in the first round of the playoffs, the San Jose Sharks are looking to redeem themselves. And with their roster, they should have no trouble doing that.

March was not exactly kind to the Sharks. They found themselves on the wrong end of a five game losing streak and for a while they were the coldest team in the NHL. Nabokov wasn’t playing his best, and the offense wasn’t scoring their usual amount of goals. Everybody knew that the Sharks needed to turn that around before the playoffs started.

And that’s exactly what they’ve started to do. Although March itself was not kind to San Jose, the end of March was pretty solid. They are going into April on a positive note, which is exactly what they needed to do. The other fortunate thing for the Sharks is that the Blackhawks have been struggling too. The only difference is that Chicago is still struggling.

#2. Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago is another team that many consider to be a Stanley Cup favorite. With some of their off season moves, they showed that they were making a not so subtle run for the cup. They vastly improved their offense, and kept the focus on great defense. However, they didn’t do such a good job with goaltending.

They are paying Cristobal Huet $5.625M to be a starting goalie (Cap Geek), and a lot of the time, he hasn’t played well enough to earn the start. He has been benched a lot this season. In fact, his save percentage is 42nd in the NHL at 89.5%. The Blackhawks have had to start relying on Antti Niemi, who was supposed to be a backup goalie. He’s been doing a lot better, but he’s still not the goalie that you want leading you to the Stanley Cup.

Fortunately for Chicago, their defense has been pretty solid. Despite the weaknesses in goal, they were still able to have the best defense in the NHL for a while (they don’t anymore, I’ll get to that in a second). I’ve always said that a goalie is the most important thing you need to build a championship team, but Chicago was the exception to this rule. Their defense was so good that it didn’t really matter who was in net, they would still win.

However, Chicago had to face a couple of crucial injuries to defenders. One was Brian Campbell who will be out for the rest of the season. If you remember, he was the one injured in the controversial hit by Alex Ovechkin.

The problem is that the defense itself hasn’t been great recently, and losing a great defender in Campbell only made things worst. Since the defense hasn’t been playing well, the goalies have been facing a lot more shots. Since neither goalie is the ideal one, the Blackhawks have been getting more goals scored against them and have been losing more games. They are currently 3-5-2 in their last ten, and are on a two game losing streak (March 30th).

More importantly, over the month of March, they have allowed an average of 3.38 goals per game, compared to an average of 2.4 goals against on the season.

#3. Vancouver Canucks

There’s a great chance that the Vancouver Canucks will win the division, but there’s no chance that they’ll beat the Blackhawks or the Sharks for the conference. Since the division winners are guaranteed a top three spot, the Canucks will have a great setup in the playoffs.

Right now, they are five points ahead of Colorado and each team has seven games left to play. Colorado has seven games to make up five points. That’s pretty unlikely at this point.

#4. Phoenix Coyotes

If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that the Phoenix Coyotes would challenge the Sharks for the division, I wouldn’t have believed you. In fact, almost nobody would have. The fact that the Coyotes have over 100 points during a season with many off ice distractions is a minor miracle.

Over the course of the season, the Coyotes have had to rely on defense. As a whole, their offense isn’t that great. Right now their offense is ranked 20th in the NHL while their defense is ranked 3rd.

Phoenix has been especially great lately. Their streak in March propelled them up the standings and guaranteed at least a top four finish. For a while, they were even beating the Sharks. At this point, both teams have six games left to play and Phoenix needs to make up four points. They basically have to win two more games than the Sharks and with the way that Sharks have played lately, it’s unlikely that Phoenix will be able to pull ahead.

Even if San Jose wins four games, Phoenix would have to win all of theirs. And that’s assuming there aren’t any OT losses or anything like that. Either way, Phoenix gave it a great run, and they were able to prove that “Hockey in the Desert” can survive.

#5. Detroit Red Wings

There are no teams hotter than the Detroit Red Wings. They are now on a six game winning streak and have risen from tenth place to sixth place. Not only are they on a six game winning streak, but they have also gotten at least one point in each of their last ten games.

The problem for the Wings this season was injuries. At one point, they had nine of their 18 starters on injured reserve. They were forced into calling up a bunch of players from Grand Rapids.

The biggest injury was Johan Franzen who was projected to have a 30 goal season. He ended up missing most of the season with a serious knee injury, and the Wings suffered from it. However, he’s back now and producing for Detroit.

But you can’t look past Jimmy Howard in goal. Compared to the beginning of the season, he’s a lot better. Many people even think that he’s going to win the rookie of the year award, and he would deserve it. As a rookie, he’s fourth in the NHL in save percentage (92.5%). That’s better than Martin Brodeur (91.4%), Mikka Kiprusoff (92.1%), and many more. Howard is now a much more confident goalie. That has shown in the way he plays on the ice, and you can also see it in some of his interviews.

The Red Wings are getting everything together at the right time. This is the most solid Howard has been all season, and it’s also the first time that the Red Wings have been able to throw all of their talent at opponents. Even as a five seed, they are not a team you want to see in the first round.

#6. Nashville Predators

Nashville is an interesting team. Right now they are one of the hottest teams in the NHL. But, many people didn’t think that they would have a great year. With their roster, I didn’t either. There is nothing on their roster that really sticks out.

Nashville does have some great players. But, then again, so does every team in the NHL. The truth is that the Predators are right in the middle of everything. They are 14th in the NHL in defense (2.69 goals against per game) and 18th in the NHL in offense (2.65 goals for per game). They are right in the middle of the NHL in everything. Their offensive and defensive ranking will fluctuate on a nightly basis because they are so close to every other team. One four goal game could move them from 18th to 14th.

However, the good thing about being average in every category is that you’re not bad in any category. Just like the Predators don’t have any glaring strengths, they don’t have any glaring weaknesses either. That’s why they can keep winning. They come at you with a very well rounded team.

But, with the way that the Wings have been playing recently, they’re going to be very tough to beat. Now that they have their players back from injury, the Wings have a better lineup. This could spell the difference between Detroit and Nashville.

#7. Colorado Avalanche

At the beginning of the season, Colorado was doing very well. They started off as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. In fact, they were one of only a couple of teams over 20 points at the end of October.

A lot of this has to do with Craig Anderson. At the beginning of the season, Anderson was solid. It seemed like he was able to stop everything.

However, that wasn’t the only thing that started off well for the Avalanche. The offense started off hot too. In October, they averaged 3.21 goals per game. Over the entire season, they have averaged 2.92. That number is solid, and still puts them at sixth in the league. But even with these solid numbers, they have still sunk in the standings.

Now, the question is whether or not they can beat the LA Kings for seventh in the Western Conference. LA’s season has been similar to the Avs because they have also sunk in the standings. Right now, both teams are 4-5-1 in their last ten.

Truthfully, either team could come in seventh. My belief is that it will come down to the last game of the season. Coincidentally, the last game of their seasons is against each other. That’s right, LA and Colorado will play against each other in the last game of their seasons and probably decide who takes seventh.

There are a lot of ifs in this prediction. The biggest reason that I’m going Colorado over LA is because of goaltending. Craig Anderson is ninth in the NHL in save percentage (91.9%) and Jonathon Quick is 28th (90.8%). Other than that, these two teams are very similar in most aspects and have an equal chance of getting seventh place.

#8. LA Kings

Like I said earlier in the snippet of Colorado, the Kings and Avalanche are very similar. They both have a lot of players that can score goals, and they have similar numbers in offense and defense. Seventh place is going to be a toss up between these two teams.

The thing about LA is that they haven’t won a consistent amount of games since their nine game winning streak in late January and early February.

However, I also said that both teams have an equal chance of getting seventh place. Personally, I think that this will come down to the last game of the season where Colorado and LA play against each other. That game could easily determine who finishes in seventh.

Subscribe to Eric's Free Email Newsletter

More NHL News