(1M) Washington vs. (2WC) Montreal
(2M) Carolina vs. (3M) New Jersey
(1A) Toronto vs. (1WC) Ottawa
(2A) Tampa Bay vs. (3A) Florida [home team still TBD]
(1C) Winnipeg vs. (2WC) St. Louis / Minnesota
(2C) Dallas vs. (3C) Colorado
(1P) Vegas vs. (1WC) Minnesota / St. Louis
(2P) Los Angeles vs. (3P) Edmonton
Italics - playoff spot not clinched Bold - playoff seed set
Calgary has a chance to claw in, but they’ll probably need to go no worse than 2-0-1 and have one of the Wild or Blues stumble. Columbus needs to win out (preferably in regulation) and have Montreal lose out (at least 1 in regulation, preferably both).
Canucks looked like they were spoiling the season for the Wild until late in the third when the Wild tied the game and went on to win in OT. So Canucks spoiled the Flames’ season instead.
Habs and Leafs were scoreless tonight in regulation time: first time that has happened for them since 1957.
And now the Wild and Blues magic number is 1. They have one game left, so get to overtime and they are in. Or hope the Flames lose a poiny in one of their final 3 games (very likely).
US ratings will probably suffer but Canadian ratings will be good with 5 Canadian teams playing, of which at least two have a good chance of going to the Final.
The battles of Florida and Ontario should be hard fought. Montreal may surprise Washington.
In the West, LA will be trying to break their jinx against Edmonton and the Jets-Blues series will give a good indication as to whether the Jets are a serious SC contender.
A later round could be even more interesting for Canadian fans if we get a Toronto-Montreal and/or Winnipeg-Edmonton series. Those would be battles.
My general rule of thumb: anyone who’s never won a Cup. This year, that would be Winnipeg, Ottawa and Minnesota. The last one assumes the Wild can get a point tomorrow night, at home, vs. Anaheim. If it can’t, there’s other ways in, but tbqh if the Wild can’t beat the Ducks, they should be out entirely.
I vaguely include the Leafs, but … it’s the Leafs, I want to say “I don’t know if everyone is ready for that” but given how the world is, maybe the Leafs winning it all would set the world right again.
We’re almost set after St. Louis rolls a hapless Utah Hockey Club [but I repeat myself] and Minnesota nearly embarrasses itself at home vs. Anaheim before pulling out a last-minute 6-on-5 goal to get the point it needed to clinch and guarantee it doesn’t go north. Columbus continues to have hope after a win over Philadelphia, so we’re down to Thursday night drama for the final wild card spot in the East.
Auston Matthews hits 400 goals for his career and is the 7th player in NHL history to start his career with 9 30-goal seasons. It also moves him back to 496 goals behind Alex Ovechkin for the all-time lea, and he hits 400 faster than Ovechkin did. [6 games faster]
Wednesday night in Montreal. They host Carolina, needing one point to clinch their spot. If they lose in regulation than Columbus can get the last spot with a regulation win on Thursday.
Switched to the Habs game after an hour of watching the leaders’ French debate and it was the right decision. Much more entertaining. Nice to see the Habs didn’t back their way into the playoffs.
Five of seven Canadian teams made the playoffs and the two that didn’t had 90 or more points.
How can I disagree when you pick the Canadian teams to win the maximum possible number (4) of series?
I haven’t watched the Habs enough this season to have a sense of how good they are. But I feel Washington is vulnerable.
St Louis has been so good down the stretch but Jets don’t seem to have any weaknesses.
Ottawa has owned my Leafs this season but I think the Leafs will turn it up a notch to prevail. Leafs really need to make it to a SC Final but that will require beating one of those tough Florida teams.
If Oilers beat LA I agree it will take seven games.
I will be donning my Habs 19 jersey Monday night. Montreal hasn’t been consistently good but has been known to make a run when underestimated. I like the matchup. Cole and Nick can get it done. Also, time for #1 pick to show up on big stage.