BOSTON -- During the past couple of seasons, including the Boston Bruins' drive to the 2011 Stanley Cup, a line of David Krejci centering Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton has been a staple for the team.

During the condensed NHL schedule in 2012-13, injuries and ineffectiveness have forced coach Claude Julien to juggle all of his lines more over the course of the first 45 games than he usually would in an 82-game season.

That's left Krejci, who's typically regarded as the Bruins' No. 1 center, skating with several different combinations on his wing. His latest linemates are Lucic and Rich Peverley. Krejci is hoping he can build some positive momentum with any two wings heading into the postseason.

Toronto Maple Leafs fan Scott Booth was at a wedding the night his team defeated the Ottawa Senators to clinch its first Stanley Cup Playoff berth since 2004. When he heard the news, it gave him the opportunity to try to execute an idea he thought of weeks earlier.

"I overheard someone say, 'They won, they're in.' So I thought, 'OK, now I know what to do,'" Booth told NHL.com. "I woke up early the next morning and went to Change.org and wrote the petition."

The online petition, which can be found at www.change.org/LeafsGoalLight, called for Toronto's iconic CN Tower to be converted into a giant goal light, which would glow red every time the Maple Leafs score during the playoffs.

Within 24 hours of Booth posting the petition, it had more than 3,500 signatures. By Wednesday evening, it had more than 16,000. That's short of Booth's goal of 50,000, but quite a total for four days.

Despite bowing out in six games to the Los Angeles Kings in the 2012 Western Conference Finals, last season was a banner year for the Phoenix Coyotes, who won the first two playoff series since moving to the desert in 1996.

A number of factors conspired against the team this season, however, as the Coyotes missed the playoffs for the first time since Dave Tippett assumed the club's coaching duties in 2009.

So how does a team that was within two wins of the Stanley Cup Final miss out on the postseason a year later? Here are some of the reasons, as well a few nuggets of optimism for 2013-14.

1. Feast-or-famine offense

The Coyotes have never been known for piling pucks into the opposing net, but the 2011-12 team that made it to the Western Conference Finals was able to score with relative consistency. This season's edition, on the other hand, occasionally scored in bunches, but usually followed that surge up with an agonizing lack of offense.

DETROIT -- It's a number that usually astounds those who aren't very familiar with it.

The number 21 is how many consecutive seasons the Detroit Red Wings have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Usually it's a secondary thought around Detroit and it keeps growing by one each year almost automatically.

Then this season came along. Suddenly the Red Wings' playoff streak is in jeopardy with three games left in the regular season. Detroit (21-16-8) is ninth in the Western Conference with 50 points, one back of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the final postseason spot, and the Red Wings have a game in hand on the Blue Jackets heading into the NBC Sports Network's Wednesday Night Rivalry Game against the Los Angeles Kings (7:30 p.m. ET) at Joe Louis Arena.

"I don't think anyone's thinking about it, but it would be sad to have the streak not continue," Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson said after Wednesday's morning skate. "If we win all three, we know we're going to be in [the playoffs], so we don't want to take any chances."

NEWARK, N.J. – Following the Montreal Canadiens' 3-2 loss Tuesday to the New Jersey Devils, a team that was eliminated from contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs two days earlier, Max Pacioretty encapsulated his team's abject play over the past 10 days with a defeated tone in his voice.

"I hate to keep saying it," Pacioretty said, "but we have to get our [game] together. Since then, we've been God-awful."

The Canadiens clinched a playoff berth on April 11 with a 5-1 victory against the Buffalo Sabres. But with the Northeast Division title there for the taking, the Canadiens have lost five of six and been outscored 26-12 in those losses thanks to a mix of poor defense, putrid penalty killing and a parade of slow starts.

All three of those problematic traits were on display against the Devils at Prudential Center.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Boston Bruins go into their game Tuesday at the Philadelphia Flyers (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, TSN) with a rare commodity: a surplus of healthy defensemen.

Bruins coach Claude Julien said defenseman Adam McQuaid, who sat out the game Sunday against the Florida Panthers with a lower-body injury, is healthy and available to play.

"He's ready to go in," Julien said. "He's healthy, so he may be an addition [Tuesday]."

That gives the Bruins nine healthy blueliners for Julien to choose from as the Bruins close the regular season with four games in seven days.

"I think it's a good problem to have, when you have that much depth going into the playoffs," defenseman Zdeno Chara told NHL.com.

ST. LOUIS -- After starting the season 3-6-1 with a whopping 3.65 goals-against average and lowly .851 save percentage, anyone would have been hard-pressed at the time to think Brian Elliott would get a sniff of postseason action, let alone be a starter when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.

But since the St. Louis Blues turned the page on March and journeyed into April, Elliott has resurrected his season and vaulted the Blues onto the cusp of clinching a playoff berth.

Elliott has gone 8-2-0 this month with a 1.37 GAA and .947 save percentage (11-8-1 overall with a 2.48 GAA and .901 save percentage), and with the uncertainty of Jaroslav Halak's groin injury -- although Halak has resumed skating and continues to progress toward a healthy return -- Elliott seems to be the goaltender the Blues will lean on when the postseason begins.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild are in the thick of the Stanley Cup Playoff race for the first time in five years. The Wild enter their game Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Kings six games above the .500 mark with three to go, controlling their own destiny in reaching the postseason for the first time since 2008.

But not all is well with the Wild -- especially within the confines of their own building, which for a decade has provided one of the most reliable home-ice advantages in the NHL.

After starting the season 13-3-1 at Xcel Energy Center, the Wild have dropped five in a row there at the most inopportune time.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- It will be a night of simple math for the Washington Capitals.

Beat the Winnipeg Jets in regulation or overtime at Verizon Center, and the Capitals clinch the Southeast Division title and the third seed in the Eastern Conference.

"This is the kind of game you want to play," Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom said following the morning skate at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. "I think everybody is very comfortable."

A shootout win by the Capitals on Tuesday won't be enough to clinch because the tiebreaking scenarios would still give the Jets an outside chance at winning the division despite the fact they will have one game remaining.

The Capitals have two to play after facing the Jets.

"Right now it's all about us," Alex Ovechkin said.

The Jets are saying the same thing.

VANCOUVER -- Six games in with the Vancouver Canucks, Derek Roy was asked if he had been able to figure out his new team's identity yet.

There was no hesitation.

"A lot of puck possession, where the other team is trying to take it away from us all game and we are keeping it, we're moving, skating, our [defensemen] are active," Roy told NHL.com after the game-day skate Monday morning.

It sounded great, but it was hard to believe Roy, acquired from the Dallas Stars at the NHL Trade Deadline, was talking about the same Canucks team that had been outshot 17-2 in the third period by the Detroit Red Wings two nights earlier.

"Since I've been here I've seen some really good periods of it and I've seen some not-so-good periods," Roy said. "We need to build that game up to playoffs so it's not like a light switch we're looking for."