The end of the NHL regular season is one month away, and there is a lot of be decided.
No team has clinched and no team has been officially eliminated, though the Vancouver Canucks are getting close.
The scoring race looks like it might come down to the wire.
And the playoff field has a chance to look radically different from last season.
As of the morning of Monday, March 16, eight teams that are sitting in a playoff position – the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Anaheim Ducks, Utah Mammoth and San Jose Sharks – had missed the postseason in 2024-25. Some of the those teams are looking to end lengthy playoff droughts.
Here are questions to be answered before the 2025-26 regular season ends on April 16:
Can the Buffalo Sabres end their playoff drought?
It sits at 14 seasons, an NHL record, but the Sabres lead the Atlantic Division with 15 games left. The closest non-playoff team is nine points back. It would take a major collapse for Buffalo to miss the playoffs again, but the Sabres show little sign of doing that, going 30-6-2 since Dec. 8. A big reason for the turnaround was the firing of general manager Kevyn Adams and the promotion of Jarmo Kekalainen on Dec. 15. The new general manager took steps at the trade deadline to keep the run going. After defenseman Colton Parayko vetoed a trade, Kekalainen pivoted to defensemen Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn, plus forward Tanner Pearson. Schenn and Pearson have won Stanley Cup titles, important for a core making a rare step into postseason play.
Can the Detroit Red Wings end their playoff drought?
Their situation is precarious. They hold the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference but have played one more than game than their closest pursuers. The Columbus Blue Jackets are surging since making a coaching change to Rick Bowness and sit one point back. The Red Wings are in a 1-3-2 slide and are without forwards Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp. Eight of their final 15 games are against non-playoff teams, including the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 7. Detroit, which last made the playoffs in 2016, added David Perron and Justin Faulk at the deadline.
Can the Anaheim Ducks end their playoff drought?
Their drought is seven seasons but they're first in the Pacific Division. They have a good mix of youngsters and veterans, including trade deadline acquisition John Carlson, and an experienced coach in Joel Quenneville. They'll be without suspended defenseman Radko Gudas for another three games after his knee-on-knee hit on Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews. But forward Troy Terry has returned from an injury.
Will we see another Panthers-Oilers Stanley Cup Final?
Doubtful. The two-time defending champion Florida Panthers have been crushed by injuries, including captain Aleksander Barkov tearing his ACL on his first day of training camp and Matthew Tkachuk not playing until January after hernia surgery. And with the team sitting 11 points out of a playoff spot, it has been resting other banged-up players.
The Edmonton Oilers are in a good position for a third consecutive run to the Final. They currently sit in a playoff spot, though Leon Draisaitl left Sunday's game with an injury. He was hit by Nashville Predators' Ozzy Wiesblatt, came back for one shift and didn't feel well so he missed the rest of the game.
Who will win the Central Division title?
Early in the season, the answer was easy: the Colorado Avalanche. They had only two regulations losses on Jan. 1 and that figure is up to 12. Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen are out with injuries. Meanwhile, the Dallas Stars are on a franchise-record 15-game point streak and are three points back. The teams meet Wednesday, March 18, in Denver (9:30 p.m. ET, TNT). Both teams beefed up at the trade deadline.
Who will win the scoring title?
There are three 100-point scorers: Edmonton's Connor McDavid (114), Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon (109) and Tampa Bay Lightning's Nikita Kucherov (106). Kucherov, who won the last two titles, is the hottest player with 55 points since Jan. 1 (McDavid has 44 and MacKinnon has 39). But the eight-point gap might be hard for Kucherov to make up until McDavid's point totals are affected by the injury to Draisaitl.
Who will have the best draft lottery odds?
The Vancouver Canucks are last in the league with 48 points and the 31st overall Calgary Flames have 59. But the 2025 draft lottery showed that might not have matter as the Islanders moved up from 11th to first and selected Matthew Schaefer. Utah won the second drawing and moved up to fourth. Penn State's Gavin McKenna and Sweden's Ivar Stenberg are expected to be the top two picks.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NHL playoff races breakdown with one month left in regular season