NHL bubble: three spots
The NHL still had real berths to decide entering the final Sunday: three postseason spots remained open, with battles centered on the Metro’s last place and a Western wild‑card slot. (Bleacher Report quantified the open spots, and league pages noted teams like the Bruins, Golden Knights and Oilers were close to clinching while others still had paths.) (bleacherreport.com (nhl.com)
Three National Hockey League playoff berths were still unsettled when Sunday, April 12, began, with the Eastern Conference’s final Metropolitan Division place and the Western Conference’s last wild-card path still in play. (nhl.com) (bleacherreport.com) The league’s format sends the top three teams from each division to the postseason, then adds two wild cards in each conference based on points. On Sunday morning, Philadelphia held third in the Metropolitan at 92 points, while Boston and Ottawa occupied the two Eastern wild cards at 96 and 94. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) That left Detroit and the New York Islanders at 91 points, Columbus at 90 and Washington at 89 chasing the final Eastern openings. Washington entered Sunday five points behind Boston for the second wild card and faced elimination with a regulation loss to Pittsburgh. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) The Islanders were in a different fight: they were three points behind Philadelphia for third in the Metropolitan and could be knocked out Sunday with a regulation loss to Montreal, or with a smaller loss plus help for Columbus and Washington. New York had dropped five of six entering that game. (nhl.com) In the West, Utah had already locked up the first wild card, and Los Angeles started Sunday in the second wild-card spot with 85 points through 78 games. Nashville sat one point back at 84 through 79 games, which made the Kings-Predators race the clearest remaining battle for one berth. (nhl.com) (bleacherreport.com) Anaheim also had a chance to remove one more variable Sunday night. The Ducks, third in the Pacific Division at 89 points, would clinch a playoff berth with any win over Vancouver. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) Part of the squeeze came from Saturday’s results, which moved several teams off the bubble. Boston clinched despite losing to Tampa Bay, Edmonton clinched when Winnipeg lost 7-1 to Philadelphia, and Vegas clinched by beating Colorado 3-2 in overtime on Jack Eichel’s goal. (nhl.com) (nhl.com) (nhl.com) Philadelphia’s 7-1 win over Winnipeg was especially important in the East because it kept the Flyers in third place in the Metropolitan instead of dropping them into the wild-card traffic. That result forced the Islanders and Capitals to keep chasing on Sunday rather than controlling their own route. (nhl.com) (espn.com) The final week still had room for seeding swings above the cut line, including Buffalo, Montreal and Tampa Bay in the Atlantic and Edmonton, Vegas and Anaheim in the Pacific. But the sharper drama on April 12 was lower in the bracket: a few teams were playing for position, and a few were still playing simply to get in. (nhl.com) (nhl.com)
