Their season finale on April 27 will likely determine the playoff fates of the Red Wings and Stars. (Tony Ding/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Herewith, the first of our looks at the final week of regular season action. Today, the Western Conference. Check back Sunday for the East.

Just two teams — Chicago and Anaheim — have officially clinched berths in the Western playoffs, there really are just two spots up for grabs.

Four clubs — Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Jose and St. Louis — are virtual locks that will close out the campaign by jockeying for position. That leaves four others — Minnesota, Columbus, Dallas and Detroit — to battle it out for the seventh and eighth seeds.

If past seasons are any indication, this race will go down to the final weekend. Here’s how each team’s chances stack up.

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This year has been a trying one for the Flyers, who might be looking at a premium draft spot come season’s end. (Eric Hartline/US Presswire)

A notated guide to this morning’s must-read hockey stories:

• Heading into Friday’s game with the Devils, the Flyers had an equal statistical chance to finish 29th overall as make the playoffs. That was until a rare shootout win took Seth Jones off their minds…at least temporarily.

• No doubt the vote of confidence GM Paul Holmgren gave coach Peter Laviolette was a great source of relief and comfort for all involved.

• Those Jarome Iginla to the Los Angeles Kings rumors don’t sit well with Eric Duhatschek.

• NHL owners will never pass on the lucre of an 82-game season, but let’s face it: this 48-game sked is pretty boss, isn’t it? The players of the Minnesota Wild seem to agree.

• Roberto Luongo reclaims the No. 1 job in Vancouver, making his third consecutive start tonight against the Red Wings. Coach Alain Vigneault has to go with the guy who is winning more games, and that’s Bobby Lu.

• If the Canucks watched the Wings Friday night, they learned it takes more than a 40-minute effort to beat them. The Oilers had the drop on them early, but the more experienced Wings stuck around long enough to capitalize on an own goal and a brilliant Pavel Datsyuk bid in OT to steal two points.

• Brent Burns has two goals in two games since being bumped from the blue line to Joe Thornton’s line. The erstwhile defender doesn’t see why a big deal is being made of the switch, but hey, versatility like that is pretty unique in the game today.

• In the midst of a disappointing season, defending Vezina winner Henrik Lundqvist is working on becoming a better puck distributor to help out his struggling blue line.

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RFA Jamie Benn and the Stars waited for the new CBA before trying to cut a deal. (Marissa Baecker/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

• A new deal for RFA winger Jamie Benn will get done , writes Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News…but it may take some time. The team’s strong start seems to swing leverage in their direction, but Benn’s camp feels no pressure to rush into a deal without getting the term (short) and money (large) that he wants. There were rumblings that there was movement last night, but it looks like the Stars will be without their franchise player heading into tonight’s game with the Blackhawks.

• Esteemed SI.colleague (and obsessive KISS fan) Adrian Dater has the (very) latest on another RFA, Ryan O’Reilly. The Man Who Never Sleeps learned early this morning that O’Reilly’s contract with Metallurg of the KHL has been terminated, which would seem to put him on the fast track to re-signing with the Avs.

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Hurricanes fans have been given some nice price breaks by their contrite team. (Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

MacLean’s (Canada’s leading newsweekly, for the uninitiated) today offered up an interactive overview illustrating how far each NHL team was willing to go to soothe hard feelings in the wake of the lockout.

The magazine’s survey took into account the sort of offers that had an impact on how much a fan might spend to take in their team’s first home game, including ticket prices, processing fees and discounts on merchandise and concessions.

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Is the Commissioner keeping things from us that we’d like to know? (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

• A simple yes or no question. The great Scott Feschuk imagines a world where the commish channels his inner Lance Armstrong and fesses up on Oprah’s couch. Also, free puppies!

• Something old, something new. True fact. More Minnesotans kept warm during the lockout by wearing a Wild sweater – Zach Parise or Ryan Suter – than by burning an effigy of Bettman. The Wild faithful finally get to see their pricey free agents don the togs tonight, along with rookies Mikael Granlund and Mat Dumba.

• Wishful thinking. The Sens start the season with three goalies and the belief that Ben Bishop could net a top-four defender in trade. Yeah, for a 26-year-old with a 7-8-3 career record.

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Hockey starved Flyers fans get to open the season by welcoming the hated Penguins. (Len Redkoles/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Yeah, I heard you last September. “Wake me up when the lockout’s over,” you said.

No one’s blaming you for nodding off while the finger-pointing, name calling, line-in-the-sand-drawing lawyers cost us nearly four months of NHL hockey. In fact, I got a little blurry myself listening to all that talk about  cap escalators and salary variance and rose ceremonies, but here I am with that call you’ve been waiting for. Time to rub the sleep out of your eyes, pull the team sweater out of mothballs, settle into that lucky couch groove and pop the top on your favorite frosty beverage. (And while you’re waiting for the first puck ro drop, some suggested reading..)

The abbreviated 2013 NHL season finally begins Saturday afternoon. And it’s gonna be a good one. (Kings raise banner in style.)

Make that really good. The 48-games-in-99-days, intra-conference schedule isn’t just “better than nothing.” This impossibly compressed timeline actually magnifies the importance of every moment, every slump, every streak, every injury. With so much on the line and no margin for error, it even makes an Islanders game worth watching. On a Tuesday. In February.

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The Minnesota Wild made a summer splash by signing prize free agent defenseman Ryan Suter (as well as winger Zach Parise, not pictured), but the team may have to make just as big a splash on the ice this season. (Jim Mone/AP)

By Stu Hackel

Every NHL season starts with expectations and conjures up predictions about where teams might finish, but this is a season like no other. You can’t even compare it too closely to the lockout-shortened 1995 campaign, one played with a 26-team NHL, a different conference alignment and playoff format, no shootout or “loser’s point,” and far less parity. And even in a normal season, there is so much uncertainty in sports that preseason predictions are a waste of time.

SI.com colleagues Brian Cazeneuve, Sarah Kwak and Adrian Dater have their thoughts on the upcoming season and you can find them here:

Power Rankings | Milestones | Central | Northwest | Pacific | Southeast | Atlantic | Northeast

Our favorite preseason pastime at Red Light is trying to boil down each team’s success or failure to one or a few essential themes. Each club has them and the answers to these questions, theoretically at least, should go a long way to determining if it plays up to expectations and potential. Keep in mind they all take place within the framework of the shortened season imposing its own unique characteristics on the playoff chase, which we pondered in this post.

Yesterday we visited the Eastern Conference. Here are the essential questions for each team in the west and some post-lockout thoughts after that:

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Josh Harding is determined to join the ranks of other NHL stars who made it back from serious diseases or ailments. (Bill Streicher/Icon SMI

By Stu Hackel

The measure of a man’s character comes when he has to summon it in the face of a crises. By that standard, Minnesota Wild goalie Josh Harding ranks among the top character athletes in all of sports.

The 28-year-old Harding disclosed on Wednesday that he has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, an incurable disease that can cause problems with balance, fatigue and vision, three necessary elements to play any sport, no less goaltender — the toughest position in what may be the hardest sport of all. But he’ll endeavor to continue his career and remain in training for whenever the league returns. His desire to keep at it demonstrates all anyone needs to know about him.

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Capitals owner Ted Leonsis is widely rumored to be in the group of hardline owners who are prolonging the lockout, but is he really trying to get out from under the fat deal he gave Alex Ovechkin? (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

On Wednesday’s blog post, we touched on the unity of the players and their rising anger level during the lockout. It prompted a comment regarding the unity of the owners. “You write about the possibility of players getting angry but what about the owners?” asked the reader who goes by JamesLandonJones. “How long until the owners in small or non-traditional hockey markets, or with otherwise shallow pockets and bills to pay, begin to apply pressure on Bettman? If this happens, where will the cracks first appear? How long before it begins? Has it already begun? Fehr has shown great skill and foresight in rallying his union. Does Bettman have the necessary skills to do the same with ownership?”

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The NHL forecast calls for more stalemate, lost revenue, no Winter Classic, and scrambling for side jobs. Loquacious Canadiens blueliner PK Subban may have found his calling. (Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

It’s the end of October and the owners’ locks remain on the doors of all NHL facilities. The most interesting news from the battlefront so far this week is that NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr traveled to Minnesota on Tuesday to meet with players and review the stalemated CBA negotiations.

Reading some of the coverage of Fehr’s visit, like this story from Bruce Brothers of The St. Paul Pioneer-Press, it’s obvious that some of the players are angry, or at least bordering on it. And, as Michael Russo of The Minneapolis Star-Tribune wrote, some players are concerned about the long-term impact that the lockout will have on their careers. Those reactions are realities of the situation, but they don’t seem to have appreciably dented the union’s resolve.

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