For the Bruins, the NHL’s best regular-season team in decades, the final two weeks of the regular season provide one last chance to fix an unexpected weakness before it haunts them in the playoffs.

At the bottom of the standings, meanwhile, the remainder of the schedule is all about lottery odds and a shot at a franchise-changing pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.

In between, teams are focused on everything from prospect assessment to division titles to winning the few remaining up-for-grabs playoff spots.

What’s your team’s top priority in the final stretch? This week, The Athletic asked its NHL staff for the most important thing each team has left to accomplish in the regular season. Here’s what they said.

Anaheim Ducks

Lose, lose, lose: Players won’t want to, and they objectively shouldn’t, but the end game for the Ducks is getting into position to grab one of the consensus top talents in this summer’s draft. They’re on the outside looking in right now, “trailing” the Blue Jackets and Blackhawks in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes and just “ahead” of the Sharks. If the miss out on Bedard, they just need to make sure they stay in the best position possible to draft Leo Carlsson, Matvei Michkov or Adam Fantilli — and then leave this season behind and hope it’s rock bottom for the franchise.

Arizona Coyotes

Keep Matias Macelli in the Calder Trophy conversation: Macelli is a 22-year-old from Finland — a fourth-round choice in 2019 who played 23 NHL games last season, which kept him two games under the threshold for Calder eligibility this season. Despite missing almost a quarter of the season because of injury, Macelli had moved into second place in rookie scoring through Thursday, and actually, on a points-per-game basis, he had inched ahead of Calder frontrunner Matty Beniers of Seattle. In fact, playing on the Coyotes’ second line, Macelli has been the leading rookie scorer by a wide margin since the start of February. The Coyotes and Kraken meet three times in the home stretch, which will give Calder voters a chance to compare two of this year’s shining rookie lights. For Macelli, getting to 50 points would be a significant achievement, and he’ll have to stay hot to do it. 

Boston Bruins

Improve the power play: The Bruins have the NHL’s second-worst power play since Jan. 11. If they don’t straighten it out, they’re inviting playoff opponents to cross the physical line. Not only would the Bruins not make other teams pay on the power play, but it would put their own players at risk of injury.

Buffalo Sabres

Keep the games meaningful: For the last few months, the Sabres have talked about the importance of playing meaningful games late in the season. With one of the youngest teams in the NHL, coach Don Granato thinks his players will be better for feeling the pressure that comes with pushing for a playoff spot. They can only do that if they stay in the race. Despite some recent struggles, they’re only five points behind the Penguins with a game in hand after Friday’s win over the Rangers.