The Western Conference playoff picture has come down to one last spot.

The Nashville Predators and Los Angeles Kings punched their postseason tickets Tuesday with the Dallas Stars' shootout victory over the Vegas Golden Knights. Miro Heiskanen netted the only goal of the shootout in the seventh round.

The Stars would've locked up the final spot had they defeated the Knights in regulation. Dallas is now four points ahead of Vegas with just two games remaining, but the Golden Knights hold the tiebreaker. The Stars can clinch Wednesday if they pick up a point against the Arizona Coyotes or if Vegas loses to the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Kings secured third place in the Pacific Division and will play the Edmonton Oilers in Round 1. It's the first time since 2017-18 that L.A. has made the playoffs, and six players remain from that squad: Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick, Adrian Kempe, and Alex Iafallo.

The Predators have now made the postseason in eight consecutive campaigns. They'll either play the Colorado Avalanche or Calgary Flames in the opening round.

Additionally, the Vancouver Canucks were officially eliminated from playoff contention.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting Jake Muzzin back before the start of the playoffs.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe said Muzzin is in the lineup for Tuesday's game against the Detroit Red Wings, according to TSN's Mark Masters.

The defenseman missed the last six games for an undisclosed reason.

Muzzin has been limited to 45 contests this season. He's sustained two concussions - one in January and then another in February, only six games after he recovered from the first one.

The 33-year-old is averaging 20:48 of ice time in 2021-22. He's collected three goals and 11 assists while authoring an expected goals for percentage of 53.25 at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Toronto acquired Muzzin in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings in January 2019.

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Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, the team confirmed Monday.

The 30-year-old sustained the injury Feb. 9. Vegas had initially hoped that rest and rehab would allow him to finish the season, adding that Lehner had attempted to battle through the ailment.

Lehner told the organization last Thursday that he'd be getting the procedure, and the team doctor agreed Saturday that surgery was the best choice, according to ESPN's Emily Kaplan. The Golden Knights reportedly asked Lehner to delay the operation and dress as the backup for Sunday's contest due to cap reasons.

Reports surfaced that Lehner would undergo campaign-ending surgery earlier this week, and there was speculation he was playing through a significant knee injury sustained in March. Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer sidestepped the rumors Friday and said he expected Lehner to be available for Sunday's game.

The Swedish native struggled through an injury-riddled 2021-22 campaign: Lehner missed five games in February with an upper-body ailment, returned for four contests, then landed on the sidelines with a lower-body issue that kept him out of an additional 12 matchups. He also took to Twitter to deny reports that he'd fractured his kneecap in March.

His last appearance came April 20, against the Washington Capitals. He allowed one goal on 13 shots in the first period, but Logan Thompson replaced him for the remainder of the contest.

Lehner logged a .907 save percentage and a 2.83 goals against average across 44 appearances this season.

Goaltender Jiri Patera was recalled from the team's AHL affiliate in a corresponding move.

Vegas is in a dogfight to make the playoffs. It has three games left on its regular-season schedule and sits three points back of the Dallas Stars for the last Western Conference wild-card spot.

The Golden Knights take on the Stars on Tuesday night.

With Laurent Brossoit still on the shelf due to injury, Vegas will have to turn to Thompson. The 25-year-old authored a serviceable .917 save percentage in 16 showings this campaign.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have won the Dryden McKay sweepstakes.

The club signed the reigning Hobey Baker Award winner to a two-year AHL contract.

McKay was named the NCAA's top men's hockey player April 8. The goaltender, who'll turn 25 in November, set a national record for wins in a season and helped Minnesota State-Mankato advance to the national championship game. He produced a .931 save percentage over 43 contests in 2021-22, his senior year.

The netminder became an NHL free agent when the Mavericks lost the title game to Denver.

Earlier in April, just days after winning the Hobey Baker Award, McKay accepted a six-month sanction by the USADA due to a doping violation. He'll be allowed to use the Maple Leafs' facilities as of Aug. 25, and he can play for the Marlies beginning Oct. 11.

McKay could've been subject to a four-year period of ineligibility - despite the completion of his college career - but he was able to prove that the positive test for ostarine resulted from a contaminated vitamin D supplement. He was tested while serving as an alternate for the U.S. Olympic team in January.

The Illinois-born goalie is named after legendary puck-stopper Ken Dryden, who was the Maple Leafs' president from 1997-2003.

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Mercifully, we've reached the last week of the regular season. With just a handful of games left and less at stake, the goal for many teams with Stanley Cup aspirations is to stay healthy.

Intrepid bettors need to be aware in the final week of who's in the lineup on a nightly basis and who starts in goal. While it's tough for many teams to decipher who the better netminder is earlier in the campaign, we now have enough data to form a clearer picture.

After nearly a full season of results and with help from Evolvinghockey.com, the following are the squads with the biggest statistical drop-off from one goaltender to another by goals saved above expected (GSAx) and the team's record on the moneyline with each goalie in net (as of games played on April 23).

*Will not be participating in 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs

When betting these teams in the final week, there should be a consideration for who's starting. The Islanders, Blues, Panthers, and perhaps the Kings all might have been surprised by who their best goaltender was this season, despite L.A. having a better record in Cal Peterson's starts.

Meanwhile, a half-dozen playoff-caliber clubs don't have much statistical difference between netminders should one start over the other.

The recipe

Before the 2021-22 campaign, we devised a three-part series on how to use the regular-season point-total market to create team ratings, how to interpret home-ice advantage, and then how to use those to create your own moneylines.

This season's on-ice predictive metrics make up 90% of our total rating. Basing 10% of the ratings on preseason "priors" allows us to emphasize team metrics without going all-in on what's happened during this campaign, which is still a relatively small sample size that includes some tainted results from when COVID-19 ravaged lineups. I also have a 5% win probability consideration for a side playing in the second game of a back-to-back with travel and 3% without travel.

How to use the guide

What follows is my fair price on the matchups (true moneyline) and the moneyline price I'd need to bet on each side. I just need a 1% edge for a favorite if we're getting better than a fair price on the team more likely to win. For the underdog, I'll need 4% or better to make it a bet. You can establish your own threshold and may decide on a higher cutoff for bigger underdogs, like 6%-7%. On games that I've projected could be a near coin flip, a 2.5% edge is enough to make a wager worthwhile.

Tuesday, April 26

Compare the "Price to Bet" column with the market's prices. From there, compile a list of wagers. After you make your bets, come back before puck drop on game night to see if any line movements created value that wasn't there before. At that point, compare the price of your opening bet to its late price to see how much closing-line value you may be getting.

Matt Russell is a betting writer for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on Twitter @mrussauthentic.

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Peter DeBoer knows full well how much his Vegas Golden Knights' late-game letdown against the San Jose Sharks on Sunday could haunt him and his team if they fail to reach the postseason.

"You hope that it doesn't cost us a playoff spot," the Golden Knights head coach said after his club blew a two-goal lead in the final two-plus minutes of regulation before falling in a shootout. "If it does, that's a tough one to sleep on all summer, but I'm going to look at the glass half-full here.

"We found a way to get a point, and hopefully that point is the difference between us making it or not."

Nicolas Roy gave the Golden Knights a 4-2 lead early in the third period, but Sharks forward Nick Bonino scored with 2:06 remaining and teammate Timo Meier tied the game with less than a second left. No one scored in overtime, and San Jose rookie Thomas Bordeleau produced the only goal in a shootout that also featured Logan Couture, Jack Eichel, Meier, and Shea Theodore.

Vegas captain Mark Stone had a chance to seal it late regulation but failed to hit the empty net from inside his squad's offensive zone.

"I don't think anything got away from us, I think it was just missed opportunities," he said. "Game's over if I put that in, so it's tough for me to look back and say we did a ton wrong. We just have to close out games. We can't allow two goals in the last two minutes, and when you get the opportunities, you've got to finish them. So, (it's a) tough one to swallow for me."

Vegas now sits three points behind the Dallas Stars for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference and four behind the Nashville Predators for the first one. All three teams have three games remaining in their regular-season schedules.

The Golden Knights hold the tiebreaker over the Stars with three more regulation wins, but the odds aren't in Vegas' favor.

Sunday's collapse came nearly three years to the day after the Sharks stunned the Golden Knights in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series on April 23, 2019. San Jose stormed back in that contest with four third-period goals en route to a 5-4 victory in overtime.

DeBoer coached the Sharks for four-plus seasons before San Jose fired him in December 2019. Just over a month later, the Golden Knights dismissed bench boss Gerard Gallant and hired DeBoer to replace him.

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Alex Ovechkin appears to have avoided a significant injury after departing Sunday's loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third period.

The Washington Capitals star is day-to-day with an upper-body ailment.

Ovechkin was unable to return to the 4-3 shootout defeat. The 36-year-old missed on a breakaway attempt and seemed to trip over Maple Leafs netminder Erik Kallgren's stick. He then collided into the boards, where his shoulder appeared to take the brunt of the impact.

Ovechkin stayed down on the ice for several seconds before getting up. He jawed at the officials before skating off, seemingly upset that there was no penalty called on the play.

The veteran winger has missed just two contests this season, both due to COVID-19 protocol. Ovechkin's shown no signs of slowing down in the later years of his NHL tenure and reached 50 goals in a season for the ninth time in his career earlier this week.

The Capitals have three games remaining on their regular-season schedule and have already clinched a spot in the playoffs for the eighth straight year.

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