It was an unusually busy weekend in the NHL, with 20 games. That gives us plenty to dig into, including some storylines that are getting hard to ignore.

Bonus Five: Storylines that stood out from a busy weekend

5. The Pacific is a mess — You may have seen this stat floating around about all six Pacific teams in action on Saturday losing by multiple goals, which on the surface doesn’t tell us a ton about the division, but certainly fits with the overall narrative. You almost definitely heard Connor McDavid’s sound bite about the playoff race being a “pillow fight.” You may even have noticed that the division’s “best” team, Anaheim, has fewer points on the year than the Red Wings, who are in danger of missing the Eastern playoffs entirely.

Yeah, it’s bad. And it’s going to draw even more ire toward the NHL’s playoff format and Gary Bettman’s insistence that nothing should ever change.

And while the whole division is in tough shape, one team stands out …

4. I’m no longer sure the Golden Knights are good — They might still be good enough, at least by Pacific standards. And they were good enough to beat the Stars last night. But with three straight losses before that, during which they’ve managed to score just one goal, the Knights have been spiraling. And this isn’t a case of a dominant team taking its foot off the gas over the course of a long season. The Knights have now won 32 out of 71 games. That’s fewer than teams such as the Devils, Panthers and Predators.

Vegas is still in the running for the Pacific title, thanks to 14 loser points and the fact that, again, the division stinks. But this no longer looks like a team that we should assume will be able to flip a switch in April. On too many nights, they’ve looked flat-out bad.

3. We may have been too quick to write off the Flyers — Everyone expected them to struggle this year, and while they were a nice early story, they’d slipped out of the race for good by midseason. Or so it seemed, because they’re back in play. After sweeping their California trip, they’ve now won nine of 12 and moved within five points of a playoff spot. They’re still long shots, but they’re in the fight. And they play the Red Wings three more times before the end of the season.

2. The Islanders needed that win last night — It had been shaping up as a disastrous week. They’d blown at least a point in a buzzer-beater loss to the Senators, then collapsed and been overpowered in Montreal. A loss to the red-hot Blue Jackets would have felt disastrous. Instead, they got an Ilya Sorokin shutout and a 1-0 win that may have saved the season. Remember this one when Sorokin shows up on Hart ballots.

1. The Predators might actually do this — Somebody has to grab that last Western playoff spot, and none of the Pacific teams seem to want it. That leaves Nashville, which won twice over the weekend to run its streak to four. Not bad for a team that was selling at the deadline. Outgoing GM Barry Trotz raised some eyebrows with that approach, which saw him move out depth pieces for picks without touching his veteran core. Now it seems like he may have played it exactly right.

On to this week’s rankings …

Road to the Cup

The five teams with the best chances of winning the Stanley Cup.

He did it. Alex Ovechkin has scored 1,000 goals in the NHL, counting playoffs and regular season. He hit the mark yesterday against the Avalanche on a play that looked just slightly familiar.

5. Tampa Bay Lightning (43-21-5, +57*) — The Nikita Kucherov MVP campaign seems to be picking up steam, and rightly so. He has 13 points in his last four games, which feels like video game numbers. He’s now passed McDavid for the scoring lead, putting him on pace to win his fourth Art Ross (and third straight). Is it possible for a guy to have more scoring titles than Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews and Leon Draisaitl combined and still be underrated? Actually, yeah, it might be.

4. Buffalo Sabres (44-20-7, +40) — The votes are in, and Sabres fans have spoken. And the bandwagon is … open for business, by a pretty overwhelming majority in the range of 80 percent. That’s what I’d figured, because Sabres fans are cool. But if you were looking forward to this particular field trip, consider your permission form signed.

Also, this guy gets it.

3. Carolina Hurricanes (45-19-6, +42) — Two wins over the Penguins pretty much wrap up the Metro, and leave them just one win back of the Avalanche for the most in the league.

2. Dallas Stars (43-16-11, +49) — Well, we had a few days where it looked like they might catch the Avs. That was fun, right? Regardless, they still got an “X” on the standings page Sunday, which brings us to …

1. Colorado Avalanche (46-13-10, +85) — A sure sign of spring: We had our first “X” on the standings page earlier, as the Avs officially clinched a playoff spot. Breathe easy, Colorado fans, I know you were all on the edge of your seats about making it.

*Goals differential without counting shootout decisions like the NHL does for some reason.

Not ranked: Minnesota Wild — This is the first time in a while that the Wild aren’t in our top five, a spot they’ve held down consistently since making their debut on December 15. Not coincidentally, that happened to be the first weekend rankings after the Quinn Hughes blockbuster, a trade that singlehandedly transformed the Wild from a solid sleeper to an elite contender.

Or did it? Four months later and with the season winding down, are the Wild starting to fade?

Their recent record says so. Since going into the Olympic break on a five-game heater, the Wild are a pedestrian 6-5-2. That record includes regulation losses to also-rans such as the Rangers, Blues, Leafs and Hawks, which is tricky — it could be the sign of a team in trouble, or merely one that’s already looking past the dregs and ahead to the playoffs. But either way, the slump has been enough to end any faint hope of the Wild moving into the top spot in the Central. They’re now locked into a brutal first-round matchup against the Stars, one they’ll almost certainly start on the road. And if they do manage to beat one of those teams, they’ll almost certainly have to do it all over again in Round 2 against Colorado.

So, can you be a Cup favorite when you’re going to be an underdog in each of the first two rounds?

One side of the coin says no, obviously not. The other says you could be, but only if you’re a truly great team that would emerge from those first two rounds as the clear favorite the rest of the way. Do the Wild fit into that category?

We’ve spent most of the year assuming they did, which is why they’ve been in almost every top five since the Hughes trade. But we’re getting down to the wire here, and the standings are starting to lock into place. Even a month ago, the Wild’s playoff path was a problem we could kick down the road. Not anymore.

They did beat the Stars on Saturday, although it took overtime. That was an impressive statement, and it gives them a little bit of momentum heading into tomorrow’s matchup with the Lightning. But barring a Dallas collapse, the Wild are going to finish third in the Central, even if they also finish third overall. And given that, I’m just not sure I see a way to keep them in the top five.

I’m open to arguments, though. Wild fans, if you want to make the case that your team still deserves its spot, have at it in the comments. And if so, be sure to let me know if you think that spot should come at the expense of another Central team, or if we should have room for all three.

The bottom five

The five teams that are headed toward dead last, and the best lottery odds for the top pick in this year’s draft and a shot at Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg.

All the best to Ryan Reaves, who was hurt in a fight on Saturday and looks likely to miss time. If this is it for the 39-year-old, you can’t say he didn’t make the absolute most of his skill set over a 16-year career. We won’t see many more like him.

5. St. Louis Blues (28-30-11, -41) — Great piece here on Jake Neighbours.

4. Calgary Flames (29-34-7, -40) — We’re at the point of a tank lottery-focused stretch run where schedule matters. On that note, it’s worth mentioning that the Flames have just one of their last 12 games against a team that isn’t either holding down a playoff spot or in a tight race for one. That lone game is next Saturday against the Canucks; other than that, it’s all teams that, in theory, should have plenty to play for.

3. Chicago Blackhawks (26-31-13, -40) — Hawks fans, are we at all concerned about Connor Bedard’s production since he returned from injury? He’s scoring at around a 70-point pace, which is good for a young player on a bad team. But it’s well off the 116-point pace he was on before he got hurt, one that had him firmly in the Team Canada conversation alongside Macklin Celebrini. Since then, Celebrini has only burned brighter, while Bedard has come back to the pack a little. He’s not a bust, but are we back to wondering if he’s going to be a franchise difference-maker?

2. New York Rangers (28-33-9, -28) — Rangers fans will find some good stuff on Igor Shesterkin in this Granger piece about the league’s most consistent goalies.

1. Vancouver Canucks (21-40-8, -81) — This goes well beyond the Canucks, but I was fascinated by Drance’s take on how the rising cap could change the way we view long-term contracts. In short, if cap space is no longer scarce, does that mean teams should move away from the “max length, low cap hit” approach that’s become the leaguewide standard, and start paying up for better term? And if so, which teams will be the first to figure that out?

Not ranked: Utah Mammoth — Here’s what we know about the Mammoth after 71 games.

First, they’re making the playoffs. Second, they’re going to be a wild card. And third, they’re going to cross over to the Pacific Division.

That last one was at least a little bit in play until last night’s win over the Kings, but we can probably set it in stone now.

Otherwise, all of that feels like it’s been locked in for a while now, to the extent that you wonder if it’s had any impact on how the team has been playing. It’s rare for a playoff-bound team to have next-to-nothing to play for down the stretch — not seeding, not home ice, not much of anything. Just stay healthy, clean up some details and finish strong enough to bring a little bit of momentum with you.

The question is whether there’s going to be more to the story once the playoffs arrive. In theory, the Mammoth will be heading over to a very winnable side of the Western bracket, while avoiding the Central mess. They could play the Ducks in Round 1, a young team that’s talented but could have a playoff learning curve. Utah would too — the Coyotes’ last playoff appearance was in 2020 — but I’d be willing to bet that the expert picks on a Ducks/Mammoth series would be close, and maybe even lean to Utah.

(Note that while it’s very possible that the Mammoth could enter the playoffs with the best record among “Pacific” teams, they wouldn’t have home ice. They’d be the division’s fourth seed no matter what.)

If they faced and beat the Ducks, then up next would be whichever team emerged from an Oilers/Knights matchup. That team would be favored, but also potentially beat up after a tough round. There’s a path here for the Mammoth, one that would lead them to become the first team in the NHL’s crossover format era to win a division they’re not even in.

If that happened, we can all agree on two things: They absolutely have to hang a “Pacific Champions” banner, and nobody would be picking them to beat the Avs, Stars or Wild. But then again, we’ve all been wrong before.

Given the new-car smell still lingering over a Utah team, it’s easy to start getting excited about where this could all lead. Then again, this is a team that was 8-2-0 after 10 games and only 29-26-6 since. Their underlying numbers are good, but not so much so that they feel like a hidden contender, such as the Blue Jackets or Senators. Instead, it feels like the Mammoth are good but not great, at least not yet.

Is “good” good enough? In the Pacific, it might be, although the most likely scenario still feels like the Oilers and/or Knights finally finding a gear. The Mammoth might be the trendy long-shot pick of the postseason. They might also be a predictable early out.

Just as long as we all agree about the banner. Get to work on that now, Utah, just in case.

Finally, the hockey community suffered a terrible tragedy over the weekend. Let’s all send our support and good thoughts to the family and friends of Jessi Pierce, and to the many people she touched through her love of the game.