On to December.

The race for a spot in the playoffs in both the Eastern and Western conference is shaping up in the NHL. Some teams could fall off with a bad performance in December.

Here is a quick look at the standings in the Eartern conference:

1	Boston Bruins	24	16	4	4	36	82	55
2	New York Rangers	27	17	8	2	36	72	65
3	Washington Capitals	24	13	8	3	29	77	75
4	Pittsburgh Penguins	23	14	6	3	31	75	63
5	Montréal Canadiens	23	13	6	4	30	67	61
6	Philadelphia Flyers	23	11	7	5	27	76	71
7	New Jersey Devils	22	12	8	2	26	65	60
8	Carolina Hurricanes	25	12	11	2	26	65	75
9	Buffalo Sabres	23	11	9	3	25	65	69
10	Toronto Maple Leafs	23	8	9	6	22	71	82
11	New York Islanders	24	10	12	2	22	65	80
12	Florida Panthers	23	9	11	3	21	56	65
13	Ottawa Senators	22	8	10	4	20	52	56
14	Atlanta Thrashers	23	8	12	3	19	67	82
15	Tampa Bay Lightning	23	6	10	7	19	53	72

And now for the Western conference:

1	San Jose Sharks	24	20	3	1	41	92	57
2	Detroit Red Wings	23	15	4	4	34	82	70
3	Vancouver Canucks	24	14	8	2	30	73	59
4	Anaheim Ducks	25	14	8	3	31	74	70
5	Minnesota Wild	22	14	7	1	29	62	47
6	Calgary Flames	24	14	9	1	29	72	74
7	Chicago Blackhawks	22	10	6	6	26	75	65
8	Nashville Predators	23	11	10	2	24	68	77
9	Los Angeles Kings	22	10	9	3	23	59	60
10	Columbus Blue Jackets	23	10	10	3	23	68	73
11	St Louis Blues	22	10	10	2	22	63	67
12	Colorado Avalanche	23	11	12	0	22	58	66
13	Phoenix Coyotes	23	10	11	2	22	55	63
14	Edmonton Oilers	23	10	11	2	22	61	70
15	Dallas Stars	23	8	11	4	20	65	86

*The top eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs.

So as we can see, the teams are still bunched up. The worse teams in each conference are still in the race for the top eight. The all important point for those teams at the bottom is not to slip for a long period of time during December.