It’s time to start seriously looking at it because you know front offices are.

All teams in the NHL now have 20 or fewer games to be played before the start of the postseason. In the East, there are three, maybe four teams that have now gotten into the conversation for the final wild-card spot, while the other seven are pretty well solidified.

So, the question is — who wants who?

The Rangers have totally woken up, added some valuable new pieces at the trade deadline and have even continued to win without franchise cornerstone Henrik Lundqvist, who remains out at least another two weeks with a vascular injury in his neck. Once he returns to the ice sometime later this month, it seems inevitable it’ll take a while for him to regain his form. Being out for a month and a half is a long time, especially for a goalie. But is mediocre Lundqvist just as good as Cam Talbot? Probably. And that leaves the Rangers still fighting for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division.

Which I think they’d love to have, thus avoiding a first-round matchup with the Islanders. Assuming the Isles don’t fall off the map — and it sure isn’t looking like they’re going to, with a 4-3 win over the first-overall Predators on Thursday — they will likely be battling with the Rangers for that top spot. The Penguins aren’t exactly scaring anyone right now, and it surely wouldn’t be too surprising to see them get passed by the Capitals for third place in the Metro.

So rather than project who will win the division — I can see my email inbox filling up already — let’s instead project that either the Rangers or Islanders will win the division, yet that they won’t catch the Canadiens or Lightning for first in the conference. Both of those Atlantic teams have too many games remaining with the sad-sack Maple Leafs and Sabres.

And that would leave the Rangers and Islanders not playing each other in the first round, but both playing someone in the division — either the Capitals or Penguins, assuming whoever finishes lower between those teams doesn’t get passed by the second wild-card (unlikely). Both of those matchups are good for both teams.

Lundqvist doesn’t lose to the Capitals, and the Blueshirts should take down a rather flawed Penguins team. The Islanders would love the Pens in the first round, the memory of that first-round series from two years ago still brewing. They’ve struggled in the past with the Capitals — Alex Ovechkin has more goals against them than any other team — but although that might be a tightly contested and high-flying series, it’s one the Isles should win.

And that would get us to where we all want, right? A Rangers-Islanders matchup, this one coming in the second round. There is still a lot of hockey left, and things could change drastically, but this seems like the most likely scenario. We’d take it.

This happened to the Panthers, not the Blue Jackets?

On Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla., the Panthers had to sign their goalie coach Robb Tallas to a Professional Tryout contract due to injuries to starter Roberto Luongo and to backup Al Montoya. Tallas never played, as Luongo came back from the hospital and quickly changed from his street clothes to go back in.

What was really shocking is that something like this hasn’t happened to the Blue Jackets. They’ve gone through such injury woes — can you even believe that David Clarkson actually gets traded there, then hurts his oblique and is out for the rest of the season? One reporter asked coach Todd Richards if he was surprised it didn’t happen to them.

“The way it’s gone … you’re right,” Richards said.

Reportedly, the conundrum of the third goalie was discussed at the general managers’ meeting in November and will be addressed at another meeting of the GMs in Boca Raton, Fla., later this month. (Tough gig being a GM, huh?)

Laviolette’s real test

As Peter Laviolette’s Predators came through New York — playing the Rangers and Devils here, then the Islanders in Nashville on Thursday — every opposing coach went out of his way to mention that the Preds are one of the best teams, if not the best team, in the league. Well, following the Isles’ 4-3 win, they’ve now lost five in a row, all in regulation.

“We keep shooting ourselves in the foot,” captain Shea Weber said after the team’s 4-1 loss to the Devils on Tuesday. They are still holding on to first in the Central — which shows you how well they played up to this point — but the Blues and Blackhawks are coming, no doubt. Laviolette’s club will make the playoffs, but how it handles the next two weeks with a trip out to the powerhouse Pacific — and how the coach handles his team with its first big bump in the road — should determine how the Predators do once they get to games that really matter.

Stay tuned . . .

The best race in the league is with the underlings of the Pacific Division. The Ducks are running away at the top, but the Canucks, Flames, Kings and Sharks are all still alive. Have to think the Kings are going to keep rising, while the Flames are crushed as captain Mike Giordano will miss the rest of the season after biceps surgery.

With the Wild and Jets holding down the wild cards out west, that should be an exciting month of hockey.

Rapid reaction rankings

1. Ducks: Big splash at the trade deadline, picking up sniper Tomas Fleischmann from the Panthers, defensemen James Wisniewski from the Blue Jackets and Simon Despres from the Penguins, along with big-bodied forward Jiri Sekac from the Canadiens. Add this to the best team in the league? Hand them the Presidents’ Trophy now.

2. Rangers: Serious win-now moves at the deadline, and they just keep winning without Lundqvist.

3. Wild: They’re 15-2-2 in the past 19 games, while goalie Devan Dubnyk has made an unbelievable impact since coming over from the Coyotes in mid-January, starting 22 games straight.

4-7: Islanders: It’s impressive how they keep finding ways to win with big injuries up front, with Kyle Okposo and Mikhail Grabovski still hurting.

15-20: Devils: Lou Lamiorello was smart in trading Jaromir Jagr at the deadline, and his team is still competing and winning quite a bit — 6-3-1 in the past 10.

Parting shot

I think Phil Kessel saying the Toronto media “should be ashamed of themselves” for the way they treat Dion Phaneuf was ridiculous. But you know what? I’m happy Kessel came out and took a stance.

I totally understand where a player is coming from in this situation. His captain is getting lambasted, and it must be hard to hear or read (but they don’t read or watch TV, right?). Kessel is an interesting guy, even if he’s reticent and shy at times. Following a trade deadline where he was dangled out on the market and found no suitor, and that was soon after he was put on the cover of The Hockey News with the headline “Coach Killer?,” I get the bitterness.

Either way, it’s almost refreshing to see a player come out and take a stance like this — even if he’s wrong.