The Dallas Stars clinched a second consecutive playoff berth with a 5-1 win over the Nashville Predators on April 3.
Dallas is also one of 11 NHL teams to eclipse the 100-point mark this season and sits in second place in the Central Division and fourth place in the Western Conference.
The Stars have already surpassed last year’s point total of 98, which was good enough to qualify for the playoffs as a wildcard before losing in a thrilling seven-game series to the Calgary Flames.
Dallas trails the Colorado Avalanche by two points in the Central, and both teams have three regular-season games remaining to help determine their playoff seeding heading into next week’s postseason.
Having the same number of games remaining as Colorado means that Dallas will either have to win out or have the Avalanche lose one of its last three games to win the Central Division. The Minnesota Wild is also in the running but cannot pass Dallas if the Stars win their final three games due to the number of regulation wins each team has.
Colorado also has a shot at winning the Western Conference, so an Avalanche loss would help Dallas in that race as well.
The Stars have an outside chance of winning the Western Conference but need some help for that to happen.
First, the Vegas Golden Knights must lose one of their final two games against the Seattle Kraken, or Dallas cannot catch them.
Second, the Edmonton Oilers must lose one of their two remaining games. Since one of those is against Colorado and could help the Avalanche win the division, the Stars would probably prefer that loss come in the season finale against the San Jose Sharks.
The Stars wrap up the regular season with their final three games this week, traveling to Detroit on Monday and St. Louis on Wednesday before returning home to close that season against the Blues again on Thursday. Both teams are near the bottom of their respective conferences and are just playing for their distant futures or draft lottery positions.
Dallas is 1-0 against both Detroit and St. Louis this season but is n to underestimating its opponents.
“We’re still playing for the division, the conference; everything’s still up in the air here,” Stars head coach Peter DeBoer told the media on Monday. “The message today was we’ve battled for 79 games — some pretty good hockey, some pretty consistent hockey. We have a chance to win the division to set up for the easiest path.”
“There’s no easy path come playoffs, but an easier path,” he continued. “Let’s make sure we take care of our end of that, which is winning games.”
DeBoer has plenty of playoff experience as a 16th-year head coach who has made the postseason for the eighth season and previously taken two teams to the Stanley Cup finals. That experience, plus his two Western Conference regular season championships, made him an intriguing hire by Dallas in the offseason.
The most likely matchup for the Stars in the first round of the playoffs will be against Minnesota.
The battle for playoff seeding continues as the Stars take on the Red Wings at 6 p.m. CT Monday in Detroit.