Daily Update April 8

So I watched a chunk of the Minnesota/Winnipeg game and I will never get any of those minutes of my life back. At this point I think I prefer to see Phoenix take the last wildcard spot instead of Minnesota. They'll lose just as easily in the first round and we won't have to watch anymore of the most boring hockey this side of Nashville. Last night's game: 84 total corsi events. Remember when San Jose got burned by Ben Scrivens? They had a hundred that game on their own. Flames/Devils only had 87, because when you change the channel from the Minnesota game, you get New Jersey. Or, for a bump up in excitement to "slime mold", you could have watched the Canucks limp out of the playoff race into the ditch with a 101-event game. Not the night for hockey.

TONIGHT, on the other hand, everything is happening. For evaluating bets, nothing really jumps out at me as out of the ordinary.

Playoff Chances

Rangers clinch with the Devils losing and so this is down to three spots. Here are the shenanigans that can do down tonight: If Philadelphia win tonight in any fashion, they clinch. If they lose in overtime or a shootout, then they clinch unless NJ win out in regulation and Philly loses out in regulation, during which NJ must make up a goal difference of 11 relative to Philadelphia. The second tie-breaker (after ROWs) is head-to-head, but that is very often tied (like with PHI-NJ) so the third tie-breaker of total goal-difference could well come into play. That could lead to some fun on the final day where so-and-so need to win by 2 goals more than so-and-so need to win by. That would be something to watch on split-screen.

• If Carolina lose, they are out.
• If Ottawa loses, they are out.
• If Detroit gets a point and Columbus also gets a point, the Hurricanes are eliminated.
• If Columbus gets a point and Toronto gets none, Toronto is out.
• If Columbus gets a point, the Senators will be out unless they win out in regulation, the Red Wings lose out in regulation, and Ottawa makes up a goal difference of 24 across 8 games. That is, on average, the Sens/Detroit-opponents must win all 8 games vs Sens-opponents/Detroit by three goals. We might file that under Deeply Unlikely, but it does conjure up an amusing scenario for Ottawa @ Pittsburgh, which is the very last eastern-conference game, 7:30pm eastern, the day after what must necessarily have been for this scenario a whipping of Toronto the night before. Detroit has just lost their matinee against St Louis. Ottawa is in if they win by 8. Imagine you're Paul MacLean -- how do you coach that game?

None of Washington, Jersey, Columbus, or Detroit can be eliminated or clinch tonight.

• If Dallas lose in regulation or Phoenix lose at all, then Minnesota is in.
• If Nashville lose, they are out.

Suffice it to say that I'll be watching a lot of hockey tonight.

Points after elimination

Team	Points	Games
Edmonton	6	5
Calgary	6	4
Buffalo	3	8
Winnipeg	2	2
Florida	2	4
New York (I)	1	1
Vancouver	0	0