One month remains in the NHL’s regular season. The race is on for the 16 berths to chase the Stanley Cup.

With the playoffs on the horizon, however, there are more than just posts to be decided. 

There are plenty of intriguing issues to digest. Here are a few worth noting as we ready for the final push in the regular season.

CLEAN THE GARAGE

This harkens back to Mario Lemieux’s comment in 1992 about all of the hooking and holding that was stifling talent. Sadly, it took more than a decade — and a lost season due to a lockout — for the NHL to react and begin enforcing the rules.

Fast forward to today and the league’s most talented player made his point about the department of player safety’s lack of consistency regarding punishment for nefarious plays.

Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid took a rare step to voicing his opinion last week when he said the process needs to find a way to ensure the frustrations are reduced from both the perpetrators and the victims.

This came to a head when Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas was handed a five-game suspension for a predatory knee-on-knee hit on Auston Matthews, which ended the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs captain.

While the Ducks, who are in the fight for top spot in the Pacific Division, felt the banishment was too much, the Maple Leafs felt it was too soft considering they were without a standout player while they are hoping to make a push for a playoff spot.

McDavid, who should be voicing his opinion more, is correct. The league must find a more consistent standard for suspensions. Hopefully the NHL does not wait a decade to heed his words.

SABRES ARE RATTLING

There are a few surprises to be found by looking at the standings — the Ducks atop the weakest-link division, the Pittsburgh Penguins in a playoff spot while the Florida Panthers are destined to miss the playoffs — but the biggest must be the Buffalo Sabres leading the Atlantic Division and within a couple of points of the Carolina Hurricanes for top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Go back to Dec. 8, and the Sabres sat last in the East, 30th overall in the league and about to fire GM Kevyn Adams while readying to miss the playoffs for a NHL record 15th consecutive season.

Thanks to an incredible 30-6-2 run sparked by a 10-game winning streak, they have a chance to be the East’s top seed. It is not smoke and mirrors, either.

Starting with a 4-3 overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 9, a game in which the Sabres surrendered a three-goal lead in the third period before recovering, Buffalo has been the league’s best team in goals for, save percentage and goal-differential.

Will it mean a the first Stanley Cup title in franchise history? Make that bet at your peril, but it is a great story for a long-suffering fanbase that deserves a winner.

ICE CHIPS

A streak being overlooked right now is the Dallas Stars on a 14-0-1 run headed into Monday’s clash with the Utah Mammoth. 

Dallas is vying for the longest points streak in franchise history … As the Panthers head toward missing the playoffs, they will join a small list of clubs that failed to reach the Stanley Cup tournament one season after winning the title. That last club to suffer that indignity was the Los Angeles Kings of 2014-15 … What is a bigger surprise: Cole Caufield of the Montreal Canadiens second in the league with 39 goals or tied for third with 38 tallies are a pair of skaters from the Minnesota Wild, Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy?

When you watch analysts fill out their NCAA tournament brackets, you normally see them pick a conference tournament winner in their brackets. How can you blame them? These teams are entering the tournament playing their best basketball of the season, and we all just got to watch them play winning basketball in a tournament setting.

Because of that, I wanted to find out whether there’s an advantage to power conference teams winning their tournament, or if some added adversity and rest are better when trying to win in March?

I looked at results from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Pac-12 tournaments since 2015 to see if I could find any trends within each conference and across the power conferences as a whole.

Over those 10 years, only four conference tournament champions have gone on to win the national championship, with half of those wins coming in the last two seasons. With the prevalence of NIL, I think we will see more conference tournament champions win in March Madness.

Another statistic that stood out was the number of first-round exits. Of the 59 teams examined, 15 exited in the first round of the tournament. Those 15 were fairly evenly distributed among the conferences, with each conference winner having at least 2 first-round exits since 2015, and the ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12 each having 3.

The Big 12 has the highest average success over the last decade. They only have two first-round exits and three final four appearances out of their conference tournament winners. The Big East follows closely behind the Big 12, but their conference is far more volatile.

UConn and Villanova have half of the four championships on this list, which helps the average finish for the Big East, but they have a median finish in the round of 32, whereas the Big 12’s median finish falls between the Sweet 16 and Elite 8.

The biggest shock on this list was the disappointing finishes from ACC tournament winners. The ACC had the second-lowest average finish for conference winners, zero national champions, and a tie for the most first-round exits. For a conference that’s won three national championships over the analyzed period, it’s shocking to see such a small amount of success from the teams that won the ACC tournaments.

Below are the conferences ranked in total final fours, and average finishes.

Final Fours:

1. Big East: 3 Final Fours, 2 Champions

2. Big 12: 3 Final Fours, 1 Champion

T3. ACC: 3 Final Fours, 0 Champions

T3. Big Ten: 3 Final Fours, 0 Champions

5. SEC: 2 Final Fours, 1 Champion

PAC-12: 0 Final Fours

Average Finishes:

1. Big 12
2. Big East
3. Big 10
4. SEC
5. ACC
6. PAC-12

My biggest takeaway from looking into these teams is not to put too much weight on how a team finishes its conference tournament. 

What makes March Madness the best sporting event on the planet is the volatility. Teams can get hot for one game or one month, and you shouldn’t put too much pressure on a team to win its conference. The college basketball season is a marathon, not a spring. Pick the team that’s been the best for the longest period of time, not the one that’s just getting hot at the right time.