In the East, all the playoff teams have clinched berths and Pittsburgh’s locked into the top seed with the Southeast champion Capitals taking the #3 seed.  Just about everything else is fluid though, with Montreal and Boston still fighting for the Northeast crown and the Rangers/Islanders/Senators all jockeying to stay out of the #8 seed and a date with the Penguins in the first round.

Boston needs three points in its final two games to secure the Northeast crown, no matter what Montreal does tonight.  A Habs regulation loss to the Leafs drops the Bruin magic number to one (an OT loss drops it to two).  Of course, the season was supposed to end today, but due to the manhunt in Boston in the wake of the marathon tragedy, they’re playing a makeup game with the Senators tomorrow night that will determine the Northeast champion barring a Boston win and Montreal regulation loss tonight – or vice-versa.

I’m not going to get into all the 6-7-8 scenarios since Ottawa’s extra game complicates it but suffice it to say the Isles get locked into the eight seed with a Ranger point and at least one Ottawa win.  Toronto is all but locked into the #5 seed (barring two Ottawa wins dropping them down to #6) and a trip to either Original Six rival Boston or Montreal in the first round.

East games of importance:

Devils at Rangers 3 PM – NBC

Montreal at Toronto 7 PM – NHLN

Philadelphia at Ottawa 7 PM

Boston at Washington 7 PM 

Ottawa at Boston 7 PM (Sunday) – NBCSN

Out West, the top three seeds are already set with Chicago (President’s Trophy winners), Anaheim and Vancouver 1-2-3 in that order.  St. Louis, the defending champion Kings and San Jose are jockeying for home-ice in the first round in the 4-6 group with the Blues a point ahead of both California teams, who are squaring off against each other.  A Blues win against a Hawks team with nothing to play for would give them the #4 seed.  An OT point would still be good enough for the Blues if the Sharks beat the Kings, but a Blues regulation loss would give first round home-ice to the winner of the California showdown.

And then there’s the super-intriguing 7-8-9 bubble with the proud Wings making a stand (three straight wins going into tonight) to keep their decades-long playoff streak alive, sitting a point ahead of both the Minnesota Mercenaries and a scrappy Blue Jackets team who are coming off a six-game road trip during which they went 5-1 when their clock was supposed to strike midnight.  Minnesota on the other hand, has been sagging going 4-8-1 in the month of April including an embarassing 6-1 home loss to the Oilers last night where they were booed off the ice in their final scheduled home game.

To sum it up, Detroit clinches a playoff spot with a point or more tonight, and Minnesota clinches with a win at Colorado.  Columbus needs to win against Nashville and get help elsewhere with either Detroit (in regulation) or the Wild losing.

West games of importance:

Nashville at Columbus 7 PM

Detroit at Dallas 7 PM – NBCSN

Minnesota at Colorado 7:30 PM

Chicago at St. Louis 8 PM

San Jose at Los Angeles 10:30 PM – NBCSN