NHL bubble tightening

With six days left before the Stanley Cup Playoffs open on April 18, the National Hockey League still has teams fighting for the last seats and other teams fighting over where they sit once the music stops. Boston, Vegas and Edmonton all entered Saturday close enough to clinch, but none of them had fully locked it down yet. (nhl.com) The format is what makes the board look so cramped. The top three teams in each division get in, then each conference adds two wild cards, so a team can be chasing a division slot, a wild-card slot, or both at the same time. (nhl.com) In the Eastern Conference, the Boston Bruins had 96 points through 79 games on April 10, which put them in the first wild-card spot. The Ottawa Senators sat at 94, while the Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders were both on 91, so one bad night could move three teams at once. (nhl.com) Boston’s path was the cleanest: beat the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday in any fashion and the Bruins were in. The backup routes were messier, because they needed at least one point plus help from the New Jersey Devils and either Ottawa or the Winnipeg Jets. (nhl.com) Ottawa had its own one-step formula. If the Senators beat the Islanders and the Devils beat the Red Wings, Ottawa would clinch a berth the same day. (nhl.com) The Western Conference was even tighter around the cut line. Utah had already clinched a spot with 90 points in 78 games, but the Los Angeles Kings held the second wild card with 85 points, Nashville had 84, Winnipeg had 82 and San Jose had 81, with most of those teams still having three or four games left. (nhl.com) Edmonton and Vegas were in a different kind of knife fight, because they were trying to secure playoff entry while also sorting out Pacific Division seeding. The Oilers led the division with 90 points, while the Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks were both on 89, so first place and third place were separated by a single point. (nhl.com) Edmonton’s clinch math was simple enough to fit on a napkin. One point against the Los Angeles Kings would do it, and even a regulation loss could still send the Oilers through if Winnipeg failed to win in regulation against Philadelphia. (nhl.com) Vegas needed either a win over the Colorado Avalanche or a tangle of outside results involving Philadelphia and Minnesota. Anaheim, which was idle, could also clinch Saturday, but only if Vancouver, Philadelphia and Minnesota all delivered the exact help it needed. (nhl.com) This is why the league called the picture razor-close. On April 7, National Hockey League media said six Eastern teams were within five points of each other for two spots, while five Western teams were within six points for the final berth, and that squeeze was still visible heading into April 11. (nhl.com) The result is a final week where a noon game in Boston can change the night game in Detroit, and a result in Philadelphia can matter almost as much as a result in Edmonton. The bracket does not just depend on who wins; it depends on whether they win in regulation, overtime or a shootout, because that extra point is now the difference between calm and chaos. (nhl.com)