The New York Rangers will play for their playoff lives, and then wait to see if Carolina ends it tonight.
With a win or an overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils at home this afternoon, the Rangers will move ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes for the No. 8 seed in the East. And they need to finish ahead of the Canes, because Carolina holds the tiebreaker for getting more points in the teams' season series.
Which is why Carolina is currently the No. 8 seed, heading into the last games of the regular season for both teams.
The Hurricanes host the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, controlling their own destiny. They could already be in a playoff spot if the Devils win; or, they could need to match or surpass the points the Rangers capture today in other to qualify.
As Dave Lozo points out, the Rangers hope to get a boost from the return of their captain:
Chris Drury, who has been out since Feb. 5 with a knee injury, will make his return against the Devils on Saturday afternoon. He's been practicing with the team, and coach John Tortorella felt he was ready.
"Dru is Dru. He's been wanting to go for a little bit here," Tortorella said. "I'm not sure exactly how much he'll play. We'll see. He'll take some faceoffs, he'll kill some penalties. He gives us a little bit of juice as far as him coming back. Our captain's back in the lineup. We'll see how it goes as we proceed in the game."
It's Henrik Lundqvist vs. Marty Brodeur.
Meanwhile, in the West, there was much clinching going on last night … and some interesting re-seeding.
Coming up, the playoff pictures for the East and West, as we shift the focus to playoff seeding. The full NHL standings and schedules can be found on Y! Sports.
All playoff percentages are from Sports Club Stats; the Tragic Number is from NHL Standings and Magic Numbers. The former is an industry standard; the latter is a site we discovered this week, and are hopeful that the figures are as accurate as those from NHL Playoff Race. Also: For the Percentage Chance of Making the Playoffs, we've included the figures from Hockey-Reference.com (HR), which is crunching its own numbers. It's listed with the percentage from Sports Club Stats (SCS).
Head here for an explanation of the Tragic Numbers.
Here's the playoff picture for the Eastern Conference:
| Team (Games) | Place/Record/Pts. | Tragic # | % Chance of Playoffs | % Chance of 7th | % Chance of 8th |
| Montreal Canadiens
(81) |
6th/43-30-8/94 | -- | IN (SCS)
100 (HR) |
30 | -- |
| Buffalo Sabres
(81) |
7th/42-29-10/94 | -- | IN (SCS)
95.4 (HR) |
70 | -- |
| Carolina Hurricanes
(81) |
8th/40-30-11/91 | -- | 66.5 (SCS) 23.9 (HR) |
-- | 66 |
| New York Rangers
(81) |
9th/43-33-5/91 | 2 | 87.6 (SCS)
76.1 (HR) |
-- | 34 |
The Sabres can still snag the No. 6 seed, and a rematch against the Boston Bruins from last postseason, if they earn more points against Columbus today than the Canadiens do against the Leafs.
Here's the Western Conference:
| Team (Games) | Place/Record/Pts. | Tragic # | % Chance of Playoffs | % Chance of 7th | % Chance of 8th |
| Nashville Predators
(81) |
4th/44-26-11/99 | -- | IN (SCS)
100 (HR) |
18 | 13 |
| Phoenix Coyotes
(81) |
5th/43-25-13/99 | -- | IN (SCS)
100 (HR) |
25 | -- |
| Los Angeles Kings
(81) |
6th/46-29-6/98 | -- | IN (SCS)
100 (HR) |
14 | 27 |
| Anaheim Ducks
(81) |
7th/46-30-5/97 | -- | IN (SCS)
100 (HR) |
20 | 38 |
| Chicago Blackhawks
(81) |
8th/44-28-9/97 | -- | 85.6 (SCS)
100 (HR) |
27 | 20 |
| Dallas Stars
(81) |
9th/42-28-11/95 | 1 | 14.4 (SCS)
-- (HR) |
-- | 14 |
As you can see, several teams clinched playoff berths last night, solidifying seven of the eight playoff spots in the West … with the Blackhawks and Stars going to the season's final day.
Dallas needs a Blackhawks regulation loss and their own regulation or OT victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday to qualify for the playoffs and eliminate the champs. If the Blackhawks earn a point against Detroit on Sunday afternoon, they're in.
Of course, this is the West, so chaos is the order of the day. The Blackhawks, with a little help, could finish as high as fifth in the West by the end of the regular season.
If the playoffs started today, they'd look like this. But we're betting they look quite different by the end of the day.