The Tampa Bay Lightning are locked into the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, but quite a bit is still in play over the last five games.
The first one takes place Tuesday night when the Lightning host the Columbus Blue Jackets in their third meeting of this campaign.
Barring a complete collapse, Tampa Bay (43-27-7, 93 points) appears to have captured the No. 1 wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, holding a healthy lead over the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers.
All of those clubs are just a point or two behind the New York Islanders, and the races for the final Metropolitan Division spot and second wild-card position shape up to be the most compelling in the East.
Meanwhile, the Lightning are just happy to have the playoff chase over -- though they did it while idle.
"It's always different when you clinch when nobody's together," coach Jon Cooper said over the weekend. "Honestly, I didn't even know we clinched until I started to get a flood of text messages saying, ‘Congratulations.'
"But a goal has been accomplished. Now it's the second phase. Prep ourselves for the playoffs and, hopefully, we're in a spot to make a good run."
If the positions stay the same, that spot would be playing the Boston Bruins or New York Rangers, leaders of the Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions, respectively, with the club finishing with fewer points squaring off against the Lightning.
Cooper's squad was 10-10-5 after an 8-1 thumping at the Dallas Stars on Dec. 2 but has gone 33-17-2 since.
"Most years, we would've had a spot locked up by now," the 12th-year bench boss said. "Did it a different way. But proud of how it was done, when you're in the heat of a race with five other teams, say, and we took charge and stormed our way into the playoffs. Pretty fired up for the guys."
Eastern Conference-worst Columbus (26-40-12, 64 points) has split games at home against the Lightning, and the Blue Jackets were blanked for the fifth time this season on Sunday when they lost 3-0 at the Carolina Hurricanes.
New Blue Jackets goaltender Malcolm Subban made his club debut by stopping 32 of 35 shots in his first NHL game since 2021-22 while with the Buffalo Sabres.
When Subban backed up starter Jet Greaves on Saturday in the Blue Jackets' 6-2 home win over the slumping Flyers, Greaves made 37 saves and helped his club to its third win in four games (3-1-0), including victories over the Penguins and Colorado Avalanche.
But the pair also made history by becoming the NHL's first Black goaltending tandem in 25 years.
The last time that occurred was when the Calgary Flames had Grant Fuhr and Fred Brathwaite in the lineup in a Battle of Alberta matchup against the Edmonton Oilers on April 8, 2000.
"It's cool that it already happened," Subban said. "I was glad to hear that. Hopefully, it's something we see more and more in the future.
"Anytime you can be part of history or part of something that doesn't happen very often, that's a good feeling. ... We just hope we can be good role models for young kids."
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