The Eastern Conference has been trending toward being more competitive than the West for years.

That doesn't necessarily mean the top teams in the East are better—the most recent Stanley Cup champions, the Colorado Avalanche, would like a word. But it does make punching a ticket to the playoffs more challenging.

Just take a look at the Atlantic Division. After the historically dominant Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Lightning are separated by one point in the standings. Then the Panthers (62 points), Red Wings (60 points), Sabres (58 points) and Senators (56 points) are all descending in two-point increments.

Then you've got the Metropolitan Division. Behind the No. 1 Hurricanes, the Devils and Rangers are separated by one point. Then the next tier is the Penguins (63 points), Islanders (63 points) and Capitals (62 points).

This means two things. No. 1, the once-relatively accurate playoff picture at American Thanksgiving might be gone. And No. 2, teams are looking over their shoulders at their peers' trade-deadline moves more than ever. Gone are the days of "we're worrying about ourselves" cliches, and you're seeing that with so much buzz starting weeks before the actual March 3 trade deadline.

The Islanders surprised most of us when they kicked things off, acquiring Bo Horvat in a move that very much helped them back into the playoff conversation. The Rangers were next up, winning the Vladimir Tarasenko sweepstakes last week, and he also immediately made an impact on his new team.

Of course, the St. Louis Blues weren't trading Tarasenko and putting one foot in and one foot out—you knew a Ryan O'Reilly swap was coming to complete their teardown.