With a week remaining in the regular season, fans are gearing up for a variety of first-round matchups in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re starting to see very intriguing battles for Wild Card spots in both the Eastern and Western Conferences. In the East, two teams that, at one point, looked like they had a better chance of scoring great odds in the NHL Draft Lottery than a playoff spot. The Ottawa Senators<\/a> and Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> have been rolling over the past couple of months, leading many to believe a tough matchup could be on the horizon for whoever they face in the first round of the postseason.<\/p>\n As of Wednesday, the Senators (41-27-10) hold the second Wild Card spot in the conference, with the Blue Jackets (39-27-12) sitting just two points back.<\/p>\n On Wednesday\u2019s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE<\/a>, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton give their picks on the \u201cbest\u201d eighth seed coming out of the East.<\/p>\n Carter Hutton: I like the Ottawa Senators. I truly do. I think the Columbus Blue Jackets are deep and play well. I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s their time yet. I think they\u2019re still going to keep growing, and they have some, but I think with the Ottawa Senators, I think Brady Tkachuk and some of their high-end skill players can be a big difference-maker. You look at Tim Stutzle, you look at Sanderson on the back end. I think that the x-factor of Linus Ullmark can be good too. He\u2019s a guy that they can build off of last year\u2019s series against Toronto, where even that series wasn\u2019t a cakewalk for the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>. Ottawa pretty much gave them everything they could handle in six games. I think the Sens could potentially do that. <\/p>\n