Bruins clinch, seeding fight
The Boston Bruins have clinched a playoff spot but remain entangled with Ottawa over exact wild‑card positioning heading into the season’s final games. (nesn.com) Local coverage flags that Boston’s seed is still unsettled, meaning their first‑round matchup could shift depending on the last regular‑season results. (nesn.com)
Boston is in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Bruins still have not locked down whether they will enter as the first or second wild card. (espn.com) With one game left, Boston is 44-27-10 for 98 points, while Ottawa is 43-27-11 for 97. Both clubs have clinched, and the one-point gap is what keeps the Eastern Conference wild-card order unsettled. (espn.com) Boston clinched on April 12 even though it lost 2-1 to Tampa Bay earlier that day, because Detroit was eliminated later that night. Ottawa clinched on April 11 after a 3-0 win over the New York Islanders and a Detroit loss to New Jersey. (cbsnews.com) (nhl.com) The seeding question changes the first-round opponent because the National Hockey League uses a fixed bracket. The lower-record wild card plays the conference’s top division winner, and the higher-record wild card plays the other division winner. (nhl.com) As of April 14, Buffalo leads the Atlantic Division with 108 points, Tampa Bay has 106, and Carolina leads the Metropolitan Division with 111. That means Boston and Ottawa are sorting out which team draws Carolina and which team crosses into the Atlantic side of the bracket. (espn.com) (nhl.com) The Bruins helped themselves Sunday with a 3-2 win over Columbus, while Ottawa slipped to the second wild card with a 4-3 overtime loss at New Jersey. Those back-to-back results are why Boston entered the final stretch holding the edge. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) Boston finished fourth in the Atlantic Division, one spot ahead of Ottawa in fifth, but division place does not decide the wild cards. The two wild-card berths go to the next two highest point totals in the conference outside the top three in each division. (espn.com) (nhl.com) The Bruins’ path changed fast over the past week: NESN reported that Boston’s playoff berth was secure, but its opening matchup remained dependent on the final regular-season results. That leaves the Bruins in the field, with the bracket still moving underneath them. (sports.yahoo.com)
