Who wants the final wild-card berth in the Western Conference playoff race?

Past the halfway part of the regular season, and with the trade deadline approaching, the Western Conference has seen clear separation between the pretenders and the contenders. If you’re a playoff purist who wants to watch best-on-best matchups, the West is likely putting it on a platter for you.

In the Central Division, the four super-talented teams you would have expected to separate from the pack — the Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, and Colorado Avalanche — are entrenched in playoff spots, all with at least 53 points accumulated on the year.

The same is true in the Pacific, where the similarly loaded Vegas Golden Knights, Edmonton Oilers, and Los Angeles Kings all have at least 53 points banked. Or said another way: The West has seven teams playing to a 100-point pace or better, and they are the seven teams you would have likely guessed at the start of the year.

But the postseason requires eight entries per conference, and four remaining hopefuls — the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues, and Utah Hockey Club — are all vying for the final spot. The only problem is these four teams have turned this race into a rock fight, losing games left and right and leaving an awful lot to be desired on the ice.

The eighth seed may come down to which team can best address or mitigate their lineup’s biggest area of concern. To that end, here is a look at what’s holding each of these four teams back right now.

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