Playoff seedings

Here's how the final two days of the season look: ( I think)

EAST:

PIT/MON will be the two top seeds. Pittsburgh needs to earn as many points as Montreal does to earn the top seed. Pit plays Philly tomorrow while Montreal plays Toronto tonight. A Leaf regulation win would give the top seed to Pitt.

CAR or WASH will be the third seed. Washington needs a point tonight vs Fla, otherwise its Carolina.

NJ will be either 4th or 5th. The only way the Rangers can displace them from home ice is with a regulation win.

The Rangers can finish 4th (with a reg win at NJ), 6th (with a reg loss at NJ and a Boston win over Buffalo), or 5th (anything else).

Boston can finish 5th (win vs Buff and Devils beat Rangers in regulation) ,6th (at least one point vs Buffalo), 7th (regulation loss to Buffalo and Flyer loss (regulation or ot/so to Pitt), or 8th (regulation loss to Buffalo and Flyer win).

Ottawa can finish 6th (Boston regulation loss and Flyer regulation or OT loss), 7th (Boston gets at least one point and Flyers don't beat Pittsburgh), or 8th (Boston gets at least one point and Philly wins)

Philly can finish 6th (win and Boston regulation loss), 7th (win, and Boston win or ot/so loss), or 8th (loss or ot/so loss to Pit )

No series are set yet, but two could be set tonight - if Boston loses to Buffalo in OT/SO, they will face the Southeast Champ, while the Rangers would face the Devils. If Boston loses in regulation, that would also assure a Ranger-Devil opening round series.

10-15 in the East are set : Buff, Tor, Fla, NYI, Atl, TB

WEST

Things are simpler out west:

Top 5 seeds are locked in: DET, SJ, MIN, ANA, DAL (technically Colorado could catch Dallas if they could reverse a 22-goal deficit in goal differential but we'll assume that won't happen). NSH will definitely be 8th.

Colorado owns a 1-point lead over Calgary, and the tie-breaker between the teams, so Colorado will be 6th and the Flames 7th unless Calgary wins in Vancouver tonight and Colorado loses to Minnesota tomorrow in regulation.

So two series are set: DET-NSH and ANA-DAL and the other two could be set tonight.

Three teams are tied for 9th (CHI, VAN, EDM) Edmonton had 41 wins but no games to play, Chicago has 40 wins and plays Detroit tomorrow, Vancouver has 39 wins and hosts Calgary tonight).

12-15 are locked. PHX - COLUM - STL - LA

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick. Eric has worked the Stanley Cup Finals four times, and celebrated his 26th anniversary as the statistician on Islander home telecasts on January 21, 2008.