SEATTLE \u2014 The playoff picture is starting to become clearer for the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s still much to play for over the final four games, starting Thursday against the struggling Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.<\/p>\n
The Kraken were in the playoff picture on March 29, the day the Knights fired Bruce Cassidy and brought in John Tortorella as coach. Seattle was supposed to challenge for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
But the Kraken have lost five straight in regulation and are one more loss from being eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n
The Knights, meanwhile, have won four straight and are inching closer to their eighth playoff berth in nine years.<\/p>\n
Who they would play in the first round, though, might not be decided until the final days of the regular season.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at potential opponents:<\/p>\n
Edmonton Oilers, 90 points<\/p>\n
The Knights and Oilers were on a collision course to meet in the first round about two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
But thanks to the Anaheim Ducks cratering with six straight losses, their division title hopes aren\u2019t promising.<\/p>\n
If Anaheim makes a last-minute charge, the third meeting in the past four years would happen much sooner than before.<\/p>\n
The Oilers, who have played one more game than the Knights, are two points ahead of Vegas and hold the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
The first round is not an ideal spot that the past two Western Conference champions want to be in, but it would make for an entertaining spectacle.<\/p>\n
Anaheim Ducks, 87 points<\/p>\n
The Oilers hold the tiebreaker over the Knights, keeping them in second place to set up an Interstate 15 matchup if the season ended today.<\/p>\n
Anaheim has surpassed all expectations in the first year under coach Joel Quenneville and still should be proud of how it finishes the season.<\/p>\n
Injuries have hit hard, with captain Radko Gudas out with a lower-body injury, and top scorer Cutter Gauthier (upper body) didn\u2019t play Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Ducks swept the season series with the Knights. That won\u2019t matter come playoff time, but that can\u2019t be something that\u2019s just swept under the rug.<\/p>\n
Utah Mammoth, 88 points<\/p>\n
Should the Knights charge their way to a fifth division title in nine years, they would draw the first wild card. That\u2019s looking more likely to be the surging Mammoth.<\/p>\n
Their second year in Utah is the payoff to what\u2019s been a long rebuild dating to the franchise\u2019s time in Arizona. The Mammoth have won four straight and seven of their past 10 after beating Edmonton 6-5 in overtime on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be a cakewalk. Utah has 10 players with double figures in goals and six with at least 20, including 22-year-old Dylan Guenther (38). It has able bodies on the blue line and a workhorse in net with Karel Vejmelka.<\/p>\n
Salt Lake City would be an epic environment to see a playoff game.<\/p>\n
Nashville Predators, 84 points<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not likely the Predators catch the Mammoth for the first wild card, but they\u2019re four points back, and Utah has a game in hand.<\/p>\n
Nashville wasn\u2019t supposed to be in this spot after selling at the trade deadline. The Predators responded to that claim by going 9-4-2 since March 10.<\/p>\n
That includes wins in three of the past four over Los Angeles, San Jose and Anaheim.<\/p>\n
It might not result in a first-round matchup with the Knights, but they can at least send Nashville a gift basket for providing the necessary cushion.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Kings, 83 points<\/p>\n
The Kings are in an enviable spot with a game in hand on Nashville and Anaheim.<\/p>\n
Should they win out, Los Angeles would surpass Nashville. The Kings would need help from the Ducks to get to third place.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles has earned points in seven of its past eight but plays three of its final five games on the road. The good news for the Kings is those games are against Seattle, Vancouver and Calgary.<\/p>\n
San Jose Sharks, 81 points<\/p>\n
The Sharks are in a good spot with one game in hand. After losing to Edmonton on Wednesday, San Jose is at Anaheim on Thursday. By beating the Ducks, talks of reviving the Knights-Sharks rivalry could be back on.<\/p>\n
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @DannyWebster21<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n Up next<\/p>\n Who: Golden Knights at Kraken<\/p>\n When: 7 p.m. Thursday<\/p>\n Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle<\/p>\n TV: KMCC-34<\/p>\n Radio: KFLG 94.7 FM\/KKGK 1340 AM<\/p>\n Line: Knights -175; total 6\u00bd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 The playoff picture is starting to become clearer for the Vegas Golden Knights. There\u2019s still much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-548709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-vegas","13":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","14":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116374689812426809","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}