The NHL’s Eastern Conference wild-card race is getting wild

The Eastern Conference wild card race is really shaking up and making this, wild! On today’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHLer and now analyst Colby Cohen take a look at the showdown in the East. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ll give you a pretender. The New York Islanders are one point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs and being propped up by a boatload of overtime losses. They only have 10 wins in 24 games this season. You could look at Tampa and say a similar thing. But you could look at the Bolts and say Vasilevskiy will find his groove again right away, Kucherov is just so elite, there’s so much talent there even if not playing their best they can flip the switch. The Islanders don’t have that, they have a slow aging forward group outside of Barzal and Horvat, a blueline that’s banged up and similar to Nashville — unless Sorokin is going to do it all  — the Islanders will be closer to Columbus than Toronto by the all-star break. 

Colby Cohen: I agree with that. I know the Flyers are fighting for a spot in that East Division. I do not see the Flyers as a team to make the playoffs this year. When I look at the East, when I look at Vasilevskiy, he was 30-40 seconds away from back-to-back shutouts. You look at some of those teams whether it’s the Islanders, the Flyers, and then we agree they aren’t playoff teams so then it’s New Jersey, Washington, who is going to emerge out of that group. I don’t love the way Jersey is playing, they just lost Dougie Hamilton, he’s out indefinitely and when I look at their defense core I do really like Marino, I think that and their goaltending is a bit of a problem. I might be leaning more towards the Caps and the Caps sneak in on that Metro spot and then the Atlantic has both the wild card spots. I just think seven of the eight teams in the East are currently in playoff spots, I think those teams will all be in the playoffs. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: Where do you stand on the Pittsburgh Penguins? I think if you told Penguins fans at the start of the year that on December 7th, Karlsson will have 19 points, Sidney Crosby is scoring at 50 goal pace and Tristan Jarry has got a .917 save percentage. But are they the favourites? That’s not the case. They’re incredibly mediocre, their powerplay has been absolutely flat. Does Crosby and company have what it takes to turn it around?

Colby Cohen: Crosby is playing like he’s 25 years old. It’s unreal. You can not overlook what this guy is able to do. Anytime a new superstar comes into this league I feel like Crosby says “Hold on I’m still 87 here” I loved what Ovechkin said weeks ago talking about them propping the league up. But at the end of the day, I think they’re too slow. They don’t have enough pace. Their powerplay should get going, you look at that personnel on it and it should click, but 0/31 with that talent, I don’t know. I’m not buying the Pens. I think they’re well coached and they will get every ounce they can out of these veteran players overall I don’t like the mix and I don’t see them as a playoff team.