NHL: race tight, Sabres lead
With fewer than seven teams officially eliminated and every club holding four or fewer regular‑season games, the NHL playoff race is razor‑tight — and amid the scramble the Buffalo Sabres preserved their Atlantic Division lead over the Canadiens. ( )
The National Hockey League took Friday, April 10 off, and that made the standings feel even tighter: every team had four or fewer games left, and the playoff board was still moving in both conferences. Buffalo woke up in first place in the Atlantic Division at 106 points, with Montreal at 104 and Tampa Bay at 102. (nhl.com, espn.com) Buffalo’s edge is small enough that one bad night can flip the bracket, but big enough that the Sabres control the race with two games in hand on nobody and a three-game winning streak. ESPN’s wild-card table on April 11 showed Buffalo at 49 wins in 80 games, while Montreal and Tampa Bay had each played 79. (espn.com) That matters because the National Hockey League playoff format rewards division placement first, not just total chaos in the conference. The top three teams in each division qualify automatically, and the next two best teams in each conference take the two wild-card spots. (nhl.com) So first place in the Atlantic is not just a ribbon on the standings page. On April 10, the projected Eastern Conference bracket had Buffalo lined up with the first wild card, Boston, while Montreal would open against Tampa Bay in the two-versus-three series. (sports.yahoo.com, nhl.com) Buffalo got here by surviving the week when Tampa Bay briefly jumped in front. Earlier in the week, ESPN had the Lightning on 102 points through 76 games, with Buffalo and Montreal at 100 through 77, and it flagged one Sabres-Lightning game as the swing point in the race. (espn.com) By April 10, that swing had gone Buffalo’s way. National Hockey League.com’s daily playoff update said the Sabres had “maintain[ed]” their lead over the Canadiens, while the club’s own playoff tracker called Buffalo “officially in the driver’s seat” in the Atlantic. (nhl.com, nhl.com) The Atlantic race is only one part of the mess. In the Eastern Conference wild-card chase, Boston held the first spot with 96 points, Ottawa held the second with 94, and Detroit, New York Islanders, Columbus, and Washington were all still close enough to care with three or four games left. (espn.com) The Western Conference was just as crowded around the cut line. Utah had already locked one wild-card spot, while Los Angeles, Nashville, and Winnipeg were still fighting over the other opening as of April 11. (espn.com, nhl.com) That is why the “fewer than seven teams eliminated” line feels so strange this late in the calendar. The regular season ends on April 16, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are scheduled to start on April 18, and yet large parts of the bracket still look like pencil marks instead of ink. (sports.yahoo.com, sports.yahoo.com) Buffalo’s part of the story is simpler than the whole league’s. Win enough over the last two games, and the Sabres keep the Atlantic crown; slip once or twice, and Montreal or Tampa Bay can turn a division title into a road series in a hurry. (espn.com, sports.yahoo.com)
