Talking About Playoffs!?!?! (Clinching Scenarios)

By: Nick Lanciani

After the Boston Bruins defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2, on Thursday night at TD Garden, the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3, in overtime— further complicating playoff clinching scenario matters (well, not really). Two key things to remember are 1) each team is ultimately in control of a portion of their own destiny and 2) the formula is simple, just win.

So with that in mind, if you are a Red Wings fan, you either want your team to:

– Win in regulation or overtime versus the New York Rangers on Saturday.

– Win in a shootout against the Rangers and hope that Boston does not win in regulation or overtime on Saturday, OR for Philadelphia to go 1-0-1 or worse in their last two games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders (respectively).

– Lose in overtime or a shootout to the Rangers and hope that Boston gets 1 point of less against Ottawa on Saturday, OR for the Flyers to go 1-0-1 or worse in their last two games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders (respectively).

Of note, Boston holds the second tiebreaker over Detroit, by virtue of having won the season series against the Red Wings.

If you are a Bruins fan, you either want your team to:

• Win in regulation or overtime against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and
  • Hope that Philadelphia goes 1-0-1 in their last two games to clinch a wild card spot.
  • Hope that Detroit loses to the Rangers in regulation or wins in a shootout against New York (and the Bruins will finish 3^rd in the Atlantic Division).
  • Hope that the Red Wings win in regulation or in overtime against New York (and Boston will finish in the final wild card spot).
• Win in a shootout against the Senators on Saturday and
  • Clinch the wild card spot if Philadelphia goes 1-0-1 in their final two games as the Bruins hold the tiebreaker.
  • Hope that Detroit suffers any type of loss to the Rangers (in regulation, overtime or a shootout) and Boston would finish 3^rd in the Atlantic Division.
• Lose to Ottawa in overtime or a shootout and:
  • Hope Philadelphia would go 1-1-0 (and the Bruins would claim the wild card, based on the tiebreaker of ROW- regulation-plus-overtime-wins).
  • Hope that Detroit would lose in regulation against the Rangers for the Bruins to finish 3^rd in the Atlantic.
• Lose to Ottawa in regulation and:
  • Hope that Philadelphia would lose at least one of their two remaining games in regulation. Detroit would finish 3^rd in the Atlantic win or lose against the New York Rangers, because of their ROW tiebreaker with Boston.

And if you’re a Flyers fan and the following plays out…

A Red Wings loss to the Rangers in regulation or a Detroit win in a shootout over New York, while the Bruins win in regulation, would ensure that the Red Wings would fall to the wild card spot.

At 94 points and 39 ROW Detroit would have to hope that the current 92 point, 36 ROW Flyers go 1-1-0, thereby finishing with 94 points and losing the tiebreaker on ROW.

OR Flyers fans would hope that…

PHI goes 1-0-1, finishing with 95 points and ahead of DET for the wild card, or PHI goes 2-0-0 and finishes with 96 points, thereby ahead of DET for the wild card regardless of the Red Wings result on Saturday.

Finally, as a friendly reminder, Detroit has a 41-29-11 record, totaling 93 points and 39 ROW’s with 1 game remaining this season. Boston is 42-30-9 this season with 93 points and 38 ROW’s with 1 game remaing and Philadelphia is 39-27-14 on the year with 92 points and 36 ROW’s with 2 games remaining.

This weekend is sure to be fun, so you should probably contact those people that invited you to things and tell them you have other plans now.