THE BOX SEATS: Edition Twenty-Three
NHL Preview for the Week of March 11th-17th, 2024.

THE BOX SEATS (Edition Twenty-Three, March 11th-17th, 2024)
Hello, and welcome to “The Box Seats”, a column designed to keep Pro Hockey fans informed, educated and entertained with the news and notes from around the National Hockey League. So kick back and read along every week during the National Hockey League season.
The Trade Deadline in the National Hockey League passed on Friday, with several clubs filling their rosters with extra depth to prepare for the stretch run heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which start in just over five weeks.
Teams like the Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, and Colorado Avalanche were big winners, making solid additions to their squads, while clubs like the Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, and New Jersey Devils sold off pieces, waiving the theoretical White Flag on the current season, and looking to retool and prepare for the 2024-2025 slate several months from now.
With all that said, let’s start things off with a quick rundown in each Conference with the NHL Playoff Picture:
Eastern Conference | Western Conference |
---|---|
Metropolitan Division Team Record Points Games Remaining | Central Division Team Record Points Games Remaining |
Atlantic Division Florida Panthers 44-17-1 92 16 (8 Home/8 Road) | Pacific Division Vancouver Canucks 42-17-7 91 16 (11 Home/5 Road) |
Wild Card (Top Two Advance) Tampa Bay Lightning 34-25-6 74 16 (8 Home/8 Road) | Wild Card (Top Two Advance) Nashville Predators 37-25-4 79 16 (6 Home/10 Road) |
Team Trends To Watch For (as of EOD March 10th, 2024)
Dallas Stars: 22-1 Run to the 2nd Period Over when lined at 1.5 goals in their last 23 games overall. On the Season, they are 51-15 to the 2nd Period Over.
New York Rangers: 12-3 SU last 15 games overall
Nashville Predators: 11-2 SU last 13 games overall.
Ottawa Senators: Ten Consecutive Games with a Goal scored in the First 10 Minutes of the contest. They rank first in the NHL in that category, with a 46-16 mark.
Top Five NHL Teams to go Past Regulation
New York Islanders = 23 Games (36.5%)
Boston Bruins = 23 Games (34.8%)
Montreal Canadiens = 20 Games (31.25%)
Toronto Maple Leafs = 20 Games (31.25%)
Dallas Stars = 20 Games (30.3%)
NHL FULL SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK:
March 11th
New Jersey at NY Rangers – 7:00p ET on NHL Network
The Hudson River Rivalry is renewed to open the week of NHL Games Action when the Blueshirts host the slumping Devils at Madison Square Garden.
March 13th
Los Angeles at St. Louis – 7:30p ET on TNT/MAX
The Los Angeles Kings are trying to hold on to their third-place spot in the Pacific Division while St. Louis is watching its Wild Card dreams fade away fast.
Washington at Edmonton – 10:15p ET on TNT/MAX
It might be too late for the Caps, who head up to Edmonton to take on an Oilers club looking to finish their rollercoaster season with a possible Pacific Division title and home ice in the NHL Playoffs.
March 14th
Toronto at Philadelphia – 7:00pm ET on ESPN+/Hulu
This will be the second and final game of the week the Philadelphia Flyers play without Head Coach John Tortorella, who was ejected from Saturday’s contest in Tampa Bay for arguing with officials and was handed a two-game suspension by the league on Sunday afternoon.
March 15th
Los Angeles at Chicago – 8:30p ET on NHL Network
Connor Bedard looks to finish his rookie season strong for the Chicago Blackhawks as they host Playoff hopefuls Los Angeles in one of two games on Friday night in the league.
March 16th
Buffalo at Detroit – 12:30p ET on NHL Network
It’s a matinee affair between Atlantic Division foes when Detroit hosts Buffalo in a big game for the Red Wings, who look to capture one of the two Wild Card berths in the Eastern Conference.
NY Rangers at Pittsburgh – 3:00p ET on ABC/ESPN+
The slumping Pittsburgh Penguins get national weekend exposure again on Saturday when they host the hot New York Rangers.
Tampa Bay at Florida – 6:00p ET on ESPN+/Hulu
There’s no love lost between these Sunshine State rivals as both Florida and Tampa Bay battle looking for important points in their respective playoff races.
March 17th
NY Islanders at NY Rangers – 1:00p ET on TNT/MAX
What better way to kick off St. Patrick’s Day in New York with a showdown between the Islanders and Rangers in the afternoon out in Manhattan as part of the TNT Doubleheader.
New Jersey at Vegas – 3:30p ET on TNT/MAX
The New Jersey Devils head to Sin City on Sunday to battle a Vegas Golden Knights team that is just trying to secure a playoff berth to officially defend its Stanley Cup title from a season ago.
Detroit at Pittsburgh – 6:00p ET on NHL Network
The Detroit Red Wings hope to pick up more points against a declining Pens squad in an early evening Sunday contest to wrap up the Weekly NHL Preview.
Frozen Fashion: The Hockey Jersey of The Week
Each Week, we will select one NHL team jersey to highlight the design and the history of that specific sweater. This week, we look at an weird jersey that never even saw the light of day on an NHL ice surface thanks to a fiery head coach.
St. Louis Blues 1997 “Trumpet” (scrapped) Alternate Jersey
When the St. Louis Blues entered the National Hockey League as part of the “Second Six” Expansion in 1967, the team, named after the classic song from W.C. Handy, would use a Blue, Yellow and White color scheme with a blue winged musical note as it’s logo and jersey crest.
This logo has been used in the entirety of the franchise’s history, and in 1995, when the NHL unveiled its new “Third Jersey” program, the Blues were slated to wear a radical design that had All-Over Graphic Printing (a new touch popularized in fashion during the Late 1980’s and heavily featured during the 1990’s).
With their new Trumpet patch logo, which had been added to the Home and Road uniforms at the start of the 1994-95 season, to unveil a new, darker shade of Blue, and added use of the color Red all over the uniform, along with a slanted striping pattern at the bottom.
The look of this new All-Over Trumpet took over nearly two-thirds of the front of the jersey, with bold yellow borders, was rumored to be hated by Head Coach/General Manager Mike Keenan, who was know to be very opinionated and bullheaded about many several things in regards to how he ran his hockey clubs over the years.
This jersey was shown off in some prototype testing in St. Louis but wasn’t even mass manufactured for sale as a “Fan Jersey,” which was a popular merchandising trend in the decade. A navy blue alternate would be released in 1998, which is basically modeled after their current-era Home Jerseys today.
National Hockey League Trivia Question
Who's the most recent Goaltender in National Hockey League history to start 70+ or more games in consecutive seasons?
Who's the Last National Hockey League player to earn 200 or more Penalty Minutes in a single season?
Hint: It’s been within the last ten years
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