On Tuesday night, 30 of 32 NHL teams will be in action.

This includes the Vancouver Canucks, who take on the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Arena this evening, as well as many teams hunting down a playoff spot over the final four weeks of the regular season.

There are races both in the East and the West that could come down to the wire, so we thought it would be fitting to go over those races and try to determine which ones Canucks fans should be paying the most attention to.

When Oilers captain Connor McDavid described the race for top spot in the Pacific Division “a pillow fight” over the weekend, he couldn’t have been more on the nose. Right now, the Ducks are leading the division with 82 points, with Vegas sitting in second with 78, and the Oilers close behind them in third at 77 points. The Ducks have a game in hand on both Vegas and Edmonton.

Both teams currently holding the Western wild card spots — the Utah Mammoth and Nashville Predators — play in the Central Division, and likely don’t love the NHL’s new-ish division-based playoff format. Utah’s 80 points would have them in second place and just two points back of first if they played in the Pacific, and Nashville would be just three points back of Edmonton with a game in hand if they were invited to the pillow fight.

To the weakness of the Pacific further into context: Anaheim has 23 regulation wins this season. Some other teams with 23 regulation wins are the the Calgary Flames, the St. Louis Blues, the New Jersey Devils, and the Florida Panthers. Of course, all of those other teams are likely sure-fire bets to miss the playoffs.

How much should Canucks fans care about this race? Well, that depends on who you’d want to see go far in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If you’ve got Oilers or Golden Knights fatigue, perhaps you’re watching this race closely with the hopes that one of Seattle, San Jose (hometown kid!), or even LA can sneak in and bump one or both of these teams out of the playoff race entirely over the next month. But for race for top of the Pacific, specifically, well, Canucks fans likely want to see one of Vegas or Edmonton bounced in the first round, and the only way to ensure that is to have those teams face off in round one.

So, go Ducks, I guess?

This one is a bit similar to the Pacific Division race in the sense that all of these teams are thankful they don’t play in the Eastern Conference. Because quite frankly, the “leader of the pack” Utah Mammoth would be in the 11 or 12 spot of the Eastern Conference, and would have to leapfrog four teams just to get into the WC2 spot. Instead, the Mammoth have a five point lead on the Predators for the WC1 spot in the West.

Really, this is a race for the second wild card spot, but could obviously get interesting if the Mammoth start to stumble near the finish line. The Predators (75 points), Kings (73 points), Kraken (71 points in 69 games), and Sharks (70 points in 68 games) certainly make the race for WC2 an interesting one. The Kraken have been trying to stake their claim in an about-to-get-more-crowded Seattle sports market, that just saw the Seahawks win a Super Bowl, the Mariners go to the ALCS, and the Sonics returning soon. Making the playoffs is going to be important for the Kraken, but with just three wins in their last ten games, it could be a tall task for them to get hot enough down the stretch to stake their claim.

For the Kings, losing Kevin Fiala for the season obviously hurt their chances, but they’re still knocking on the door. With this being Anze Kopitar’s final season, they’d surely love to get into the playoffs, but will they be able to? San Jose has lost four straight games, so despite having games in hand on the teams above them, they’re not exactly inspiring a ton of confidence that they’ll pull ahead in this race, either.

Meanwhile, the Blues are 7-1-2 in their last 10 and after being in the conversation for a top 5 pick for most of the season, they’re within striking distance to leapfrog five teams and snag the WC2 spot if they stay hot.

This one likely ranks fairly low on the average Canucks fan’s care-o-meter, and much like the race for the top of the Pacific, is looking a lot like a pillow fight as well.

This one is looking like one of few clear two-horse races around the league, as both the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning have pulled away from the rest of the pack in their division. Buffalo currently holds the top spot with 95 points, while the Lightning have amassed 91 points through 69 games, two fewer than the Sabres have played.

Buffalo, at the very least, looks poised to end their 14-season playoff drought with a young and exciting core ready to break through, but can they hold on to the top spot? They’re 8-1-1 in their last 10 and red-hot since the Olympic break, and if that remains, it’s going to be tough for anyone to catch them.

Aside from the chance to add a banner to their collection, winning the division is going to be important for the Sabres because it would help them avoid a first-round matchup against the ultra-impressive Montreal Canadiens, who might be able to out run-and-gun the Sabres in a seven game playoff series. Buffalo would presumably match up better against one of the Eastern Wild Card teams, who we’ll get to in a second.

As for how much Canucks fans care about this one? The expansion cousin Sabres seem to hold a soft spot in the hearts of many Canucks fans, and coupled with the almost too long to believe playoff drought, it seems plenty are pulling for the Sabres down the stretch.

Are you a fan of Arturs Silovs? Conor Garland? Bo Horvat? Well, that might help you pick which team you’re hoping can snag second and third in the Metropolitan Division. The Carolina Hurricanes have first place all but locked up with 96 points already, but currently, the Penguins (86 points), and Blue Jackets (85 points) are holding down the second and third spots in the Metro in what’s going to be among the closest playoff battles we see materialize down the stretch of the season.

As you can see below in the standings, the line between being a playoff team, a wild card team, or missing the dance entirely is extremely slim for the Penguins, Blue Jackets, Islanders, and Bruins, with the Senators and Flyers hoping to make things interesting:

With all the ex-Canucks involved in this race out East and the drama that razor-thin margins naturally create, we’re going to say this is the race Canucks fans will likely be paying the most attention to. And really, that might be the case for all hockey fans over the final month of the season.

Which race are you most looking forward to watching play out? Let us know in the comments section below!