16 Stats: The Eastern playoff race, the other Nylander and difficult defensive

The Eastern Conference playoff race is a hot mess; a middling sludge containing seven teams that wish they were anywhere else. 

Not one team is where it wants to be right now and it’s made for a completely chaotic slide to the finish. The clubs that want to lose for the hope of a brighter future are finding ways to keep winning, and the teams that want to win keep falling all over themselves trying. The eighth seed is currently on pace for just 90 points and that number seems to get lower each week.

Does anyone in the East actually want to make the playoffs? 

The Flyers were probably hoping to add another blue-chip prospect to the cupboard this season. Instead, they somehow have the best postseason shot at 70 percent — something no one could’ve reasonably expected at the start of the season. They traded arguably their most valuable defenseman at the deadline and have looked lost at five-on-five since with just 41 percent of the goals and 49 percent of the expected goals. They’re 10-12-2 over the last two months and their playoff odds haven’t changed since — that’s how bad everyone else is.

The Capitals were probably hoping to retool in preparation for Alex Ovechkin’s final seasons and their results suggest they’ve succeeded in building a team capable of that. Washington is 29th in five-on-five goals percentage, 20th on the power play and 20th on the penalty kill. The Capitals have a worse goal differential than both Arizona and Ottawa and it hasn’t mattered thanks to a 16-2-9 record in one-goal games. In mid-February, it looked like they were finally finding their path toward the bottom. Instead, they’ve gone 10-5-1 since and have seen their playoff odds jump to 33 percent.

The lack of desire from either of those clubs to make the postseason should’ve made for an easy opening for another team to step in. But the teams that should be there just can’t seem to seize the opportunity.

The Islanders were hoping to return to conference final form and currently have the inside track on a wild-card spot at 47 percent. But it sure doesn’t feel like it now that the team has dropped five straight games, four of which have been by three or more goals. They have just one more win than the Senators and have a .426 win percentage. That’s a 35-win pace. The lowest full-season win total in the cap era for a playoff team is 38, set by the 2011-12 Panthers and the 2015-16 Wild.

GO DEEPER

Patrick Roy got the Islanders back in the playoff race. Can he keep them there?

The Red Wings were hoping this season could be their big leap, and while it looked like it would be at some point, they’ve had a disastrous drop-off over the last few weeks that’s blown this race wide open. Detroit has lost eight of its last 10 games and seen its playoff odds drop from a peak of 76 percent, all the way down to 36 percent.

The door is wide open and it doesn’t matter because arguably the three strongest teams spent the first part of the season…