As the NHL season winds down, the Eastern Conference is shaping up and teams are starting to separate in the standings. It seems that the more north you look, the stronger the teams generally are, with the exception of the first and last-place teams. Four out of five Northeast teams hold a playoff spot, while four out of five Southeast teams don’t. As it stands right now, it’s going to be awfully hard for anybody to swap tickets to the postseason.

The Washington Capitals are becoming the New York Yankees of the Southeast Division. At 101 points, they’ve already clinched a playoff spot, and will likely finish first overall in the East, if not President’s Trophy winner. The next closest in their division is Tampa Bay, who is 10th overall and four points out of a playoff spot. Atlanta and Florida are five and six points out each, but all three teams have been in freefall during the last two weeks.

At the far other end of the Conference in the Northeast, four of the five teams are separated by 10 points and hold four of the eight playoff spots. Buffalo holds the obligatory third-seed with three points fewer than fourth-seen New Jersey. Ottawa, Montreal and Boston sandwich Philadelphia as the other playoff-bound Northeast teams. Only the young Maple Leafs are below the cutoff line – far below, actually. They sit in dead last convincingly, despite being tied for 8th-highest in goals for in the East.

All teams in the Atlantic Division not named New York make up the rest of the playoff hopefuls. Defending Cup champion Pittsburgh holds a two-point lead over New Jersey, but that may change with Malkin still out and the almost-knee injury to Crosby, but that doesn’t make them or their division any less threatening to the Conference. The NHL is going strong in the upper east side of the continent, which is a welcome change from the dominance coming out of the west for the last dozen years.